For The Good Of The Village
by GlitterPen
Summary: Hinata has been given an option to perform a mission for the good of the village, one for which she is uniquely qualified. But it is a choice she never imagined she would have to make and the consequences are profound. How will her decision affect those around her? Can the actions of one young woman change the village?
1. For The Good Of The Village

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and do not make any money from these writings._

**For the Good of the Village**_  
_

Hinata sat nervously in the waiting area outside the Hokage's office. She worried at the hem of her jacket, wondering just why she had been summoned here. Usually regular missions were handled out of the assignments office downstairs in the Hokage tower. One was normally only summoned to Tsunade-sama's office itself for higher-level missions or covert ones or...disciplinary reasons.

The black-haired beauty fiddled with the hem of her garment yet again. This probably would not have worried her if her whole team were here, Shino, Kiba and Akamaru. They had performed plenty of A-ranked missions together and even some S-ranked ones as well. If she were being assigned to some temporary team she'd certainly do her part. And she couldn't begin to imagine any _disciplinary_ reason why she would have been called up here.

But Sakura had acted so strangely when she'd delivered the message. Strangest of all was that it was Sakura herself who informed her. The Hokage had sent her own student rather than a normal messenger. Sakura-chan's demeanor had been terse and unusually reserved. Hinata had a bad feeling that this was a matter of gravest importance.

She tried to relax, taking several deep breaths and forcing her mind to quiet itself from its restlessness. As Kurenai-sensei would say, things would sort themselves out soon enough. In just a few more minutes she would know the answer to the reason for this meeting.

From behind the heavy oak door, she could hear Tsunade's voice raised in anger. Hinata shrank inwardly dreading the day if the ire of that woman should ever be directed toward her. She resisted the overwhelming urge to use her Byakuugan to see just who was in the office suffering the brunt of Tsunade's wrath. That, however, would have been rude and an unnecessary use of her powers. Hyuuga, if anything, were circumspect to a fault.

She knew that Sakura was behind that door, however, and for a moment she feared that her friend might be the object of Tsunade's anger. That concern was swiftly swept aside as she recognized the voice of her fellow kunoichi urging Lady Tsunade to remain as calm as possible.

Hinata could make out other voices muffled behind the door but they were not clear enough to where she could recognize any of them. At least one male and one other female were in the room, as well as Shizune-san whom she heard echo Sakura's plea for calm.

The door slammed open so forcefully that it rebounded and only Tsunade's outstretched arm, palm flat to intercept it kept it from slamming shut again. Hinata gulped and tried to stand, her knees wobbling so much so that she was afraid she'd collapse.

"L-l-l-lady Tsunade, you a-a-a-asked to see me?" she managed to stammer out.

"It wasn't me, Hinata," Tsunade growled through gritted teeth. "But it seems my_ council_ have other ideas. Get in here."

Tsunade stood with the door held open wide for her, ushering her in. Hinata scurried in, praying that her knees wouldn't fail her causing her to faint right here in the center of the Hokage's office. She looked around the room, Tsunade, Sakura, Shizune and members of the council Koharu-sama and Homura-sama were present. Hinata swallowed again, hard, redoubling her prayers for strength. To collapse in front of this august body would be unthinkable. She chided herself - what kind of a shinobi was she?

The lavender-eyed Hyuuga heiress straightened herself and then bowed politely greeting the attendees.

"Take a seat, Hinata," Tsunade motioned as she returned to her own chair behind her desk. The blond-haired sannin indicated a chair and as Hinata sat, Tsunade nodded that Sakura and Shizune should also. The silence was deafening. Hinata wished someone would speak. The only sound she could hear at the moment was her own blood pounding in her ears and her heart beat hammering in her chest. What on earth was going on here, she thought nervously.

"Well?" Tsunade's sharp comment was directed toward the two older council members. "You asked for this meeting. Aren't you going to tell her?"

No one spoke and Hinata withered under the penetrating gaze of the two elderly shinobi, teammates of the former Third Hokage and the only ones in the village able to overrule Tsunade-sama's decisions.

Unable to bear the silence any longer, Hinata finally broke it herself. "Tell me what, Lady Tsunade?"

Tsunade snorted in derision as she poured herself a small saucer of sake from a flask. Tipping it up and draining the saucer, she peered over the rim at the two old people across the room from her. "Tell you their hare-brained scheme to 'make-up' for their own past sins, Hinata. And if they don't have the guts to speak up_ right now_, then this meeting is over. One...two..."

"We certainly have the 'guts' as you say, Tsunade-chan," the old woman spoke before Tsunade got to the count of three, her voice graveled with age. "It's just that we were...observing her. So you are the Hyuuga heiress, my dear?"

"Y-yes," Hinata answered simply, mentally kicking herself that she had stammered in front of these dignitaries.

"And you possess the Byakuugan, do you not?"

"Yes. I do, ma'am."

The two nodded satisfied. Then the man spoke. "You have a sister, also. Younger than you, is that correct?"

"Yes."

"And she carries the Byakuugan and is accomplished in its use as well?"

"Yes." This time, Hinata also nodded her assent. The questions were puzzling. This should all be easily available in her personnel file. Why were they asking them? Surely it couldn't be for information, it almost seemed more like they were asking as if to reassure themselves of something. But what?

"Get to the point!" Tsunade snapped.

Koharu sighed. "Very well then. But before I do, I must swear everyone in this room to silence. Nothing discussed here leaves this room." The three younger woman nodded in acknowledgment. She paused before continuing. "Perhaps, Tsunade, your choice of words was the best. We do indeed seek to correct our previous actions, our 'past sins' as it were. You are no doubt familiar with the Uchiha massacre?"

Hinata's eyes widened. Of course she knew about it, everyone in Konoha knew about it Only it was always spoken of in hushed tones - Konoha's shame, Uchiha's shame, that the pride of their own clan, Itachi, could do something so monstrous.

"Yes, my lady, I do. But what does this have to do with me?"

"Patience, Hinata Hyuuga, is something that your sensei assures us you are good at. Indulge an old woman. The tale isn't easy for me to tell."

The voice was weary and resigned. Hinata wasn't sure how Tsunade could be angry at the old woman, she seemed to her to be more...pitiable.

"Forgive me," Hinata ducked her head in a brief bow. "Please continue. I will listen."

"It was a long time ago. And you must understand..."

"All we did, we did because we thought it was best for the village, for Konoha." the old man finished for her.

Hinata nodded and the old woman continued. "The Uchiha massacre was...our fault."

The words rang in Hinata's ears. Itachi Uchiha alone was responsible for his clan's massacre! How could these two respected members of the council have had anything to do with it? She opened her mouth to ask but the old woman shushed her by raising a wrinkled hand, dry skin spotted with age. "Hear what Homura tells you - we honestly believed at the time, that the action was the only way to preserve Konoha."

There was a long pause, before she added. "We ordered Itachi to carry out that mission."

Hinata gasped. It wasn't possible. It was...incomprehensible. Monstrous. She wanted to rise from her seat and had to grip the edges to keep herself from doing so. She gripped so tightly that her fingers hurt. The people across from her were_ monsters._ Then she looked into the two tired old faces.

The old woman continued and she could hear the heartbreak in Koharu's voice now. "We honestly believed that Uchiha were planning an uprising. That left unchecked they would destroy Konoha, the entire Leaf Village. Looking back now we see how misguided we were but at the time..."

"At the time," Homura finished for her "we thought we were saving more lives than we were sacrificing."

And Hinata realized that they believed it. She couldn't describe it, she just knew, instinctively, that they were telling the truth. She'd heard the old expression that the road to hell was paved with good intentions and here in front of her was living proof of that. These two old people had been living in their own private hell for years now.

"But...what does this have to do with me?" she asked.

Silence once again descended on the room and she looked around, peering into each face, wondering why no one would answer her. Tsunade wore an expression of sheer anger as she downed another saucer of sake. Sakura was white-faced and trembling, with fear or with anger herself Hinata couldn't tell. Shizune was implacable, her face a perfect mask revealing nothing.

Homura cleared his throat and shifted in his chair, turning to look at Koharu who sighed and looked at her own hands, folded in her lap. "We...have come across...that is...there is a remote possibility that we could...restore the Uchiha clan."

"But...how?" Hinata asked, bewildered.

"The kunoichi, Karin, who came back to the Leaf when Naruto and Sakura returned after their encounter with Sasuke five years ago, was intimately familiar with Orochimaru's lairs as well as his experiments and ... test subjects and materials."

Hinata nodded, wondering when they would continue.

"Some of that material was genetic," Homura added finally.

"It is possible that...with artificial insemination, a new Uchiha possessing the sharingan could be born. The clan could begin to be restored."

Shattering realization dawned on Hinata. They were asking her to...bear a child? To bear a Uchiha child? "I...I...why me?" she asked.

"Stop right there!" Tsunade interjected. "Before this goes any further, I want to make it perfectly clear to Hinata that I am opposed, morally, philosophically, ethically, and medically to this. I will not allow you to use my kunoichi as brood-mares!"

"_Your_ kunoichi, Tsunade? Isn't she Konoha's kunoichi?" Homura asked sharply.

"More importantly doesn't she have the right to make up her_ own _mind?" Koharu asked. "What is the harm in presenting complete information and allowing her to make her own choice? Or would you decide that for her, imposing your own will on her? In which case, how are your morals or ethics better than ours?" Koharu added.

Tsunade grumbled and glared at them. "Just to be crystal clear Hinata. You can get up and walk out that door anytime now. And this conversation never happened."

"I-I will hear them out, Tsunade-sama," Hinata, ever the peacemaker answered, hoping to restore some measure of calm to the room even as her own head swirled with the outrageous possibility they had just proposed. Bear a Uchiha child? Preposterous.

The heart of the matter now out in the open, Koharu found it easier to proceed. "Karin has informed us that Orochimaru kept meticulous samples of all his subjects before he began...altering them. Many of these labs have been discovered and much recovered, some even viable. The most recent lab contained genetic material from Sasuke Uchiha among others."

"But how can you be sure?" Hinata asked.

"Orochimaru and Kabuto were fastidious at cataloging everything. There is no mistake. The material is viable. It is highly probable that it could produce a viable pregnancy."

"I see," Hinata nodded feeling like she were watching a Saturday afternoon science fiction movie. "But again, what does this have to do with me specifically?"

"The Uchiha clan is an offshoot of the Hyuuga in the not-too-distant past. Sharingan is a mutation, a refinement that originates in specialized use of Byakuugan. With a Hyuuga ovum, there is a greater likelihood that the child would inherit the Sharingan capabilities."

"But again, why me? There are many other Hyuuga women."

"You don't have to do this, Hinata. Just get up and leave," Tsunade broke in.

Koharu raised her hand again. "All other women in your clan of child-bearing age bear the Caged Bird seal at this time except for you and your sister. Only you two can act freely from clan oversight in this matter since it involves potentially creating a Byakuugan heir instead of a Sharingan wielder. And your sister is only 15."

Hinata nodded again. "I see." She paused then said. "But I believe there is more to this than simply atoning for past sins?" She surprised herself by her own boldness at the force in her question.

Koharu chuckled. "Perceptive. You will make a worthy leader of Hyuuga some day young Hinata."

"Sasuke remains a threat to this village. Hatake Kakashi is the only one in Konoha who still possesses Sharingan and even that is limited. It would be...good for Konoha...if Sharingan was restored to the village."

"For the good of the village, you mean?" Hinata prompted.

"Yes. For the good of the village."

_**A/N:** I hope I have piqued your interest. I would love to have comments and feedback. _


	2. Whatever You Do

**Whatever You Do**

Hinata sat with her hands clasped in what she hoped appeared to be a placid manner in her lap. In reality she was clenching them tightly to keep them from shaking. The room was deathly silent, everyone waiting for her to speak.

Wave after wave of conflicting emotions washed through her. What she had just heard from these elders could not _possibly_ true. No one could give any serious consideration to this ...absurd notion.

And yet as she tried to calm herself once again taking advantage of the silence it was empowering to acknowledge that it was_ her_ voice everyone was waiting to hear. She tried to force herself to look back objectively over the entire shinobi clan structure. Konoha, it's history, the history of the other hidden villages had all been full of examples of molding human beings from birth, and sometimes even before, to become those perfect weapons known as shinobi. The clan constructs could be viewed, in coarse terms, as their own controlled breeding experiments where kekkai genkai were carefully guarded and cultivated generation after generation.

In short, the elders' proposition was not quite so far outside the norm as it appeared on the surface.

Hinata looked again into the two wizened old faces and felt...pity. There seemed to be no trace of guile or deception about the two of them, in fact she could sense a tremendous relief that their history of past deceptions was finally coming to light. This weighed heavily in her decision. She had always been brought up to be respectful of her elders, to help them and ease their burdens if possible. What kind of burdens had these two been carrying on behalf of their village for all these years?

"I...I am not equipped to make this decision on my own, Hokage-sama." Hinata answered with a pause but not a stammer this time. "I would like to ask permission to seek advice from another person."

"Who did you have in mind, Hinata?" Tsunade asked.

"Kurenai-sensei."

Tsunade looked at Koharu and Homura sitting across from her, cocking an eyebrow skyward as she questioned them. "Well?"

Koharu answered. "We understand, Hinata. We thank you for giving this matter serious consideration and not dismissing it out of hand. Kurenai Yuhei is a most suitable choice for advice in this matter. All we ask is that you impress upon her the confidentiality of this issue. Make sure that other than Yuhei-san and those within this room today, no one else knows about this discussion."

Hinata nodded in agreement. "Is that all, Tsunade-sama?" she asked.

Tsunade's smile was kind and warm, directed solely at her. Hinata had no doubt that the instant she was gone Tsunade's full ire would be directed back at Homura and Koharu but for the moment it was nice to be the object of such warmth from her Hokage. "I think that's more than enough for today, eh, don't you think Hinata?"

Smile, warm and broad and just for her, her caramel eyes twinkling so that Hinata herself had to smile as well now that the odious formality was over. "Yes, Tsunade-sama," she agreed emphatically and grinned in relief, rising to go.

"Hinata, if you have anything you want to discuss or ask me, anything at all, I'm available to you at any time." Tsunade added. "Or, " eyes twinkling again and smirking at her, "if you never want to talk about this again, that's fine, too. Understood?"

"Yes, Tsunade-sama, and thank you," Hinata bowed to her Hokage and the elders then turned to smile at Shizune and Sakura before she left.

Walking home, she tried to review in her mind all the_ cons_ about the proposal and see if there were any_ pros_ about it, any at all. If there was absolutely nothing worth considering any further about this, if she was truly going to just 'dismiss it out of hand' as Koharu had called it, then there was no reason at all to even mention it to Kurenai-sensei. The topic could just die right here and now without any one who was not inside Tsunade's office today ever knowing anything about it.

And the cons were almost too numerous to count. She, a single mother? Hinata honestly had to admit that she felt she fell far short of the mark in what was required to take on that task. Kurenai-sensei was a worthy example and Hinata truly admired everything she was able to do in keeping to her duties as a shinobi and being her son's sole parent.

This train of thought caused another, more disturbing one, to race through her head. Would she be_ allowed_ to be the child's mother? They wouldn't take it away from her would they?

Would it be fair to bring a child into the world without his father? There were enough orphans and fatherless children in all the shinobi villages due to the history of wars and fighting, would it be right to engender a child knowing from the outset that he or she would never have a father present?

All these thoughts played through her head as she walked along the streets of Konoha, politely greeting those she passed. She was distracted as she continued on her path to her apartment, merely acknowledging acquaintances with a brief nod or a raised hand. She must have been rushed in her steps because no one considered it rude, they just assumed she was on an urgent mission.

Entering the security and comfort of her own apartment, Hinata closed the door behind her and went to the kitchen to prepare herself a cup of tea. Soon the light jasmine fragrance of the tea filled her small apartment as she sat down to try and collect her thoughts over this matter.

The social implications seemed to be decidedly in the 'against' column. But there were also personal considerations that only Hinata herself could know.

Elders in her own clan had been making noises about arranging a marriage for her ever since her twentieth birthday a few months earlier. Some of the older women had nattered about that she should have been wedded and bedded long before now. Although her own father hadn't broached the subject with her she knew he had had meetings with the elders lately on topics that were more than just routine clan business.

The topic had been nagging in the back of her mind for some time now. She dreaded the day when her father accompanied by some elderly aunt would bring up the subject in seriousness to her. _We've found a suitable match for you, Hinata-chan_.

She'd long ago given up her girlhood dreams that Naruto himself would fall in love with her and save her from the machinations of the Hyuuga clan. Naruto was, and always had been, in love with Sakura. It had just taken Sakura some time to realize what her true feelings were for him. Now that they were a couple it was obvious they had been meant to be together. Hinata sincerely wished them well.

And as far as love interests went, besides Naruto there really had never been anyone else to whom she'd been attracted. Kiba-kun and Shino-kun were practically her brothers, much like Neji-nii-san, it was impossible to consider them as anything other than family.

Hinata realized that she had grown up thinking there were two paths for her to follow, one where she was the dutiful heiress, marrying whomever her clan selected for her and the only alternate to that that she could imagine was one wherein the prince, in the form of Naruto she'd hoped, would swoop in to rescue her from that fate.

And now, here she was presented with a third option. One wherein she could...choose.

She could choose a separate destiny.

It was only one item in the 'pro' column, but it was a there nonetheless.

There was at least a reason to go see Kurenai-sensei.

* * *

"How long does he nap?" Hinata whispered as Kurenai closed the door to the sleeping boy's room and the two walked softly to the living room.

Kurenai smiled. "Not nearly long enough I'm afraid. I think he'll have completely given them up by his next birthday."

The two women settled onto the couch. Kurenai still lived in the same home she'd had when Hinata had stayed with her during her genin years. In all of Konoha, this was probably the one place where the young Hyuuga woman felt most comfortable and secure. She'd shared her deepest secrets and fears with Kurenai growing up and the genjutsu mistress had become more than her sensei, she was the older sister that Hinata never had. Although neither of them spoke much about it because it was still too painful for Hinata but in many ways Kurenai also filled the role of her mother who had died when Hanabi was born and Hinata only five years old.

"So, Hinata, what did you want to see me about?" Kurenai asked.

"Well, ah, it's about an interesting proposal..." Hinata began.

Kurenai's heart sank. She had been dreading this conversation for the last couple of years now. The girl's bastard of a father had finally decided on some well-off old man he deemed a suitable match for his daughter and was marrying her off. It was probably some distant clan cousin with an established business and maybe even children of his own by his now deceased first wife, children already close to Hinata's age. Kurenai tried to control her emotions, she couldn't tell if she was almost trembling with rage or heartbreak for her student.

"And, you, s-s-see Kurena-sensei, it's unlike anything I had ever considered before," Hinata was continuing. Kurenai's ears perked up, it must really be an awful match if Hinata was starting to stutter around _her._ She and the rest of her team were the few people with whom Hinata had always felt most comfortable. Perhaps Hiashi was even marrying her off outside the village, to some far-flung relative at the opposite end of the Land of Fire.

A soft palm covered Hinata's knee as Kurenai patted her comfortingly. "Is it about...marriage, Hinata? Has your father decided?"

Hinata blinked. Of course that would be the first thing that would occur to her sensei, it was the most likely scenario. "No," she hesitated, "not exactly. I mean, it's not about marriage but it is about having a child. A baby. About me, having a baby."

It was Kurenai's turn to blink. She didn't know what to say. After a lengthy pause during which Hinata found it difficult to continue and Kurenai found it difficult to reply the older kunoichi finally asked, "Hinata, are you _pregnant?"_

_"_What? No!" the lavender-eyed girl was surprised, stunned, even, that her sensei would intuit such a thing. "I mean, not yet, but it is about me...having a baby. _ Eventually._" She stressed the last word.

Relieved, Kurenai suggested, "Why don't I make us a pot of tea?"

Hinata nodded, grateful for a few more minutes to compose her thoughts. Pleasant sounds of preparation came from the kitchen, the gentle clink of china, the water merrily boiling and finally being poured over the tea and once again Kurenai returned. This time she had a tray in hand laden with the pot and cups. She placed it on the table in front of the sofa and rejoined her student.

"Now, then, why don't you start at the begining?"

And Hinata did. To her credit, Kurenai dutifully listened to all that was said without looking too shocked or interrupting in disbelief. When she was finally finished, Hinata looked at her teacher and asked. "What do you think?"

Kurenai's red eyes were wide. "I think," she said rising from the couch. "That we should be drinking sake not tea."

Smiling at the gentle joke, Hinata appreciated the humor that lightened the mood as well as the sake that was quickly produced and shared between the two friends.

"What do you think, Kurenai-sensai?" Hinata finally asked again.

"What do I think?" Kurenai leaned back in the chair, her dark tresses falling over the back as she looked up at the ceiling and searched for a wise answer. "I think raising a child alone is the hardest thing I've had to do in my life. There's not a day that passes that I don't wish Asuma was here with me. I miss him every day."

"But that...wouldn't be the case with me." Hinata prompted.

"I know," Kurenai replied understandingly. "But Hinata, just because you've not met someone yet doesn't mean you won't find the right person and fall in love with him and..."

"And would the right person love me less if I already had a child?" she countered.

Pouring more sake for the two of them, Kurenai didn't answer directly but rather mused, thinking out loud, "You know, isn't it odd that we kunoichi wouldn't have any qualms about killing, taking a life, if ordered to for our village but to be asked to create a life, to bring a new life into this world causes us such a dilemma."

"So what do you think I should do?"

Kurenai smiled. "I can't answer that. But I can say that whatever you do, you will do well because I know you. And whatever you decide, whether it's this or a traditional clan marriage or something else entirely, I'll always support you."


	3. Pros and Cons

**Pros and Cons  
**

Hinata faced an inner struggle of enormous proportions over the next few days. She was at times determined, scared, convinced she was crazy, elated and anxious. There were times when she was convinced she was capable of going through with the plans the elders proposed and other times when she was dismayed that they would even suggest such a thing.

But when she honestly sat and weighed the pros and cons it quite surprisingly kept turning up more pros than cons. Being a single mother would be harder than she knew she could imagine but she had Kurenai as an example and a reliable friend. She was certain that with her steady help she could do this. And Konoha in general had an exemplary record of helping shinobi families when one, or God forbid, both parents had died.

Another item in the pro column was that she could do what her father had always wanted with respect to the clan leadership - turn it over to Hanabi. The downside to this was that she would probably be completely ostracized from the Hyuuga clan.

If Hinata's father thought she was unsuitable for Hyuuga leadership he had vastly underestimated not only her shinobi skills but her skill in statecraft as well. She had been a most attentive student at clan meetings she had been required to participate in since childhood. Undertaking this course of action would precipitate a crisis in Hyuuga the likes of which had not been seen since...as long as she could remember.

Clan issues could be resolved through negotiations, however, and if the elders wanted this badly enough they could see to it that that happened. Personal issues would be much harder. Hanabi would be surprised but she knew her sister well enough to know that she would be relieved the tension between them was resolved by Hinata removing herself from consideration as leadership. Briefly she allowed herself a few moments in which to feel wistfully forlorn about her father. If only...

If only he had ever actually _been_ a father toward her.

It was a sign of the graciousness of Hinata's heart that she actually bore him no ill will. She just...missed...what she wished they could have had.

The painful, grown-up realization was that it had never been there to begin with. The idea was strangely liberating. All her life she'd been told she was never good enough for Hyuuga and now she no longer had to be. She was free to, what was in effect, be the founder of her own clan.

The elders may have thought they had a plan to restore the Sharingan of the Uchiha to Konoha, but Hinata's plans included much more than that.

Kurenai's words haunted her, though, that a day didn't go by in which she didn't miss Asuma. How was this possibly fair to a child? To deliberately bring a child into the world with her it's only parent? To create a child for the purpose of re-establishing a particular jutsu?

The fact of the matter was that was just what the history of arranged marriages among the various clans had been - business propositions and the reinforcement of clan specific jutsu. How else had kekkei-genkai come about and why else were they so jealously guarded?

Better to have technology to assist than to have her own body bartered by her father to make a suitable match.

But, and here was the most important question, could she_ love_ such a child?

In her heart she already knew the answer to that question or else she would never have spent so much time worrying about the rest of it.

With that her mind was made up.

She appeared on Kurenai's doorstep breathless the next morning. As Kurenai opened the door she saw the smile on Hinata's face and simply said, "Well, I see you've decided."

Nodding, feeling particularly giddy, Hinata stepped in at Kurenai's welcome and joined her sensei for tea. "Yes, sensei, I have. And I-I hope you will accompany me as I give them my requirements."

Kurenai arched an eyebrow at her young student and smiled. "Requirements?"

Hinata nodded. "I have given it a lot of thought Kurenai-sensei and it's not quite as simple as fulfilling their request of a single baby."

"Of course not, Hinata, it's your whole life ahead of you. After this, you do realize that you're never not going to be a mother again, don't you?"

Another nod from Hinata and she held up her hand. "Of course, Kurenai, but it goes beyond that. And there are certain practical considerations that will have to be met. Both inter and intra-clan."

"Well I'm glad to see you've considered it so carefully. May I know what requirements you intend to ask them to satisfy?"

"Please do not be offended, Kurenai-sensei, but I can't let you know that just yet. I need to ask you one more favor in addition to all the help you've given me these last few days and asking you to accompany me tomorrow when I see the elders."

"Oh? Of course I'll do whatever I can to help Hinata. And of course I'll be there. Now, what else is it you need for me to do?"

"I know that you are close friends with him, closer than I am to him myself. Would you please do me the favor of asking Shikamaru Nara to accompany us tomorrow as well?"

"Shikamaru? Yes, I can ask him. But why, Hinata?"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that yet."


	4. Negotiating a Contract

**Negotiating a Contract**

Hinata was slightly nervous as she waited patiently with Kurenai the next morning for Shikamaru to arrive. She realized that she was actually more worried about the role she was asking Shikamaru to play in all this than she was about announcing her decision to the council itself. Although she considered Shikamaru a good friend, the Hyuuga heiress recognized she was by no means as close to him as she was to her own teammates, Kiba and Shino. And yet, they did not possess the skills she was going to ask the young Nara man to draw on by presenting him with her dilemma with no preparation. She hoped he would forgive her afterwards.

There was a light knock at the door and Kurenai answered it and welcomed Shikamaru into her home. He looked at Hinata and smiled his famous half-grin and wished them both a good morning then added with his characteristic lack of enthusiasm, "So, Hinata, care to tell me what this is all about?"

The blood rushed to her face in a furious blush and Hinata felt light-headed. With her knees knocking together, she managed to stammer out, "P-p-please, Shikamaru, forgive me if I ask you to indulge me and wait just a little longer." She noted that the young man stood casually, his hands in the pockets of his jounin vest. He appeared to be in a far more relaxed pose than she felt with her own hands jammed into her own pockets at that moment.

Another half-smile and he shrugged, "Sure. Whatever." He yawned and turned to Kurenai, "How's the boy?"

"At preschool. As a matter of fact, you can see him this afternoon. He's been asking about you. You've been away on missions for quite a while now."

"Yeah, it's been a drag," he drawled.

"Shall we go then?" Kurenai asked. Hinata had informed her that their meeting was at nine this morning with Tsunade, Koharu and Homura. Even though the two younger people were now her equal in rank since they had both been made journin in the years since Asuma's death, she still felt somewhat like their teacher as she shepherded them out her front door.

The three made their way through the busy morning streets of Konoha. Vendors were doing a brisk business in the early sunshine. Shikamaru noted the blue of the sky and a few fluffy clouds on the horizon and commented that it was shaping up to be a nice day. He and Kurenai exchanged a few pleasantries about the weather and Konoha in general but their voices seemed tinny and far away to Hinata. Her heart was racing but it felt as if her feet were slowing each step they carried her closer to her Hokage's door.

They finally arrived and after a brief wait in an ante-room where an attendant politely offered them tea, Shizune opened the door to Tsunade's office and called for them. Filing in Hinata noted that Shikamaru's face didn't betray any surprise at all as he simply and quickly took in the faces of the people in the room. The attendees were precisely those whom Hinata had expected and whom she had informed Kurenai would probably be present - Tsunade and the council along with Shizune and Sakura.

If Shikamaru was curious, his face certainly did not show it, in fact he looked bored, almost as if it was everyday he was summoned in front of three of the most important senior people in Konoha. Then again, Hinata realized, perhaps he _was_ used to it. The Nara family had always been very close to Tsunade. Not only was Nara-san her jounin commander, they seemed to be close friends as well. A fresh wave of nervousness passed through her at the thought that she might anger not just her friend but also a powerful family she might soon need as allies.

Tsunade was already seated at her desk, Shizune and Sakura slightly behind and to her right. The elders were seated to her left. That left Hinata and her small retinue to take the three seats positioned in the center of the room.

Tsunade looked at her and silently mouthed. _It's okay. Breathe._ With a start Hinata realized how tense she was and that she had in fact been holding her breath. She breathed out and saw Tsunade wink at her. Again she whispered. _It's okay._

Hinata relaxed a little. But it was short-lived. Homura's sharp voice snapped her back to the reality of the situation.

"Hyuuga Hinata, we had an agreement that you would discuss this matter with only a single person outside this room. Have you already broken that agreement?"

"N-n-no, Homura-sama," Hinata replied, thankful for Kurenai's gentle touch at her elbow. She straightened in her chair. "S-s-shikamaru knows nothing of the request which was made of me. I n-n-needed only Kurenai-sensei's advice in arriving at my decision. And my decision is a qualified 'yes.'"

"Qualified?" Homura demanded.

"H-hai, Homura-sama," Hinata replied, gathering strength. "I have decided that my answer is yes and we may proceed provided certain conditions are met. Shikamaru is here to…negotiate on my behalf, if you agree. If not, then, I regret my answer is no."

Homura harrumphed. Koharu scowled and straightened in her chair but the scowl was quickly replaced by a smirk. Tsunade sipped her tea noisily to avoid laughing out loud at the looks of consternation on both their faces. None of them had expected such audacity from Hinata. Tsunade was intrigued to see how this would play out.

"Negotiate?" Koharu asked, leaning forward and taking control of the conversation away from Homura.

"Hai, Koharu-sama," Hinata responded politely, her hands now folded placidly in her lap. Negotiate. She was in familiar territory. As far back as she could remember she had been present at clan meetings where business was conducted. She had grown up nodding off to sleep next to one elderly aunt or another as a young child in the midst of transactions where financial deals were made and marriages were arranged both intra and inter clan. Her father may have disparaged her skills as a shinobi but he had dutifully seen to it that she was well versed in the business and political skills necessary to head their clan.

"Why Nara?" Koharu asked, her voice crisp but not unkind.

"This is a very complex problem that will span many years. I would hope we can all agree that Shikamaru has unparalleled skills in analyzing complexity and seeing multiple potential outcomes as well as setting up contingency plans. But if you do not agree to his presence then we must conclude this meeting. Shikamaru leaves here with no other information than what you and I have just exchanged. And I have kept my word."

Koharu considered briefly, smiled, then nodded. "Agreed. Go on."

"I have documented the request you made of me at our last meeting as well as some fundamentals necessary in order for a successful outcome of your rather obvious but unstated goal." Hinata produced a small scroll from her pocket and handed it to Shikamaru.

"And what is that rather obvious but _unstated_ goal, Hinata? I thought we expressed it most clearly earlier?" Homura asked.

"Indeed. You expressed a _portion_ of it very clearly, Homura-sama. However, only a portion. And in order to achieve the stated portion requires an … infrastructure, or the unstated portion. Without which, I become a perpetual target and this mission, as it were, will end in failure."

"Very well. Let's begin," Koharu said.

As Shikamaru turned his scroll over and broke the seal he drawled, "So since everyone agrees I'm now a participant in this meeting, would somebody mind telling me what the stated and unstated goals are?"

Hinata answered calmly while looking ahead at Koharu and Homura. "The original request was to produce a child with the ability to wield the Sharingan. The unstated request but which must follow logically from the first is to reestablish the Uchiha clan."

Although her gaze held steady on Koharu, Hinata possessed amazing peripheral vision even without activating her Byakugan. She had to suppress a grin as she saw Shikamaru cast a sidelong glance of astonishment her way. If he had been a cat, she would have imagined his ears pricking forward in interest. Well, she thought to herself, at least there were some things that surprised him.

He pored over the scroll in front of him. Finally he put it down and looked at her. "Hinata – are you _sure_ about this?" he whispered.

"Yes, Shikamaru." Her soft voice matched his own. "I have researched both my clan and the village histories and outlined some of the historical legal precedents. Although there is no single circumstance that exactly matches this one, I believe there are enough examples to roughly match what needs to be done, which is, in short, restore the Uchiha clan."

"Not the legal precedents, Hinata!" he fairly hissed at her under his breath. "Are _you_ sure about this? You. Do _you_ know what _you're_ doing to yourself?"

"I can assure you, Shikamaru, I understand much better than you do. You are Nara, not Hyuuga. It is you who perhaps cannot understand that an arranged marriage has always been my most likely fate, my destiny as Neji would say. Now, at least I get to have a greater deal of control in the matter."

"Well?" Koharu asked, interrupting them.

"Pardon me, Koharu-sama," Shikamaru addressed her. "As you know, this is the first I have seen of any of this. May I have as few moments to study the information she has prepared?"

"A _few_ minutes," Koharu said curtly. "Meanwhile, why don't you fetch us some tea, Tsunade?"

Tsuande scowled at the old woman, annoyed at being treated as a serving girl and then sent Shizune to the outer room. She soon returned with the assistant bearing a tea service. As they were all served, Shikamaru was engrossed in the details Hinata had provided him. She had clearly been very thorough in her research but he could see a few weaknesses in her plan. One thing was certain, she had a firm grasp on the _scope_ of what they were asking her to do. She couldn't just have an out of wedlock child, much less one conceived artificially, much less from the notorious Uchiha clan without splitting Hyuuga apart. And splitting Hyuuga apart would most likely cause a similar sized rift in the village itself.

The solution Hinata proposed was actually quite sound from a legal standpoint. Since the Uchiha clan had never been formally disbanded it existed in a sort of legal limbo. Sasuke as the sole remaining survivor still maintained the titular head of a clan that was in effect in suspended animation. The clan's lands, houses, buildings, bank accounts, and all other holdings had passed to him by inheritance laws at the death of all his other blood relatives. After eleven years, Konoha still remained in shock over the massacre and the topic had been so taboo that no one had yet undertaken the legal unwinding of Uchiha.

But the clan still existed. And was unable to produce an heir. The curious anachronism Hinata proposed was an ancient law that was still on the books more as oddity than something actually employed in the memory of anyone living. When a family was unable to produce an heir they could engage the services of a concubine. The concubine lived with the family as a member and did her wifely duties until such time as a child was born. The concubine was then paid for her services and dismissed and the child was raised as the new heir of the family.

Hinata proposed that the elders function _in loco parentis_, in the absence of Sasuke's parents, to negotiate a contract in effect purchasing her as a Uchiha concubine from Hyuuga.

Now that he had the gist of it, Shikamaru sipped his tea and gathered his thoughts. Yes there were weakness but the devil was in the details and could be overcome.

Hinata had one overriding stipulation. The child would be _hers_. Since there was no Uchiha family in which to leave the child she would be designated the guardian in charge of and responsible for him or her. She would in effect, remain employed by the Uchiha clan as the caregiver for the child until he or she reached adulthood and inherited all the clan's holdings. Hinata's written note made it very clear that this was a nonnegotiable point.

"All right," Shikamaru began. He highlighted her primary stipulation to which the elders agreed rather quickly. But next he surprised even Hinata herself when he specified that the entire Uchiha holdings should fall under her control as guardian. The two older people dissented but it did not take long for Shikamaru to convince them and everyone in the room that it was actually easier for the village to settle the Uchiha matter in one fell swoop.

Other weaknesses that he felt Hinata had not looked far enough ahead in addressing had to do with her own safety. They could keep this under wraps for a certain amount of time, but if the procedure was successful eventually biology would win out and Hinata would not be able to hide a pregnancy for the entire nine months. He asked for and got their agreement to rotate bodyguards for her. He specified their original classmates to begin with as well as Kakashi Hatake. Not sure how this would play out in the rest of the village he wanted to keep the initial group small that would be privy to the information. They needed enough to maintain an effective rotation but not enough to draw undue attention. He deliberately excluded Neji's team for the immediately obvious reasons that Neji was Hyuuga and thus a member of the group most likely to be pissed off by the whole affair.

That left only the matter of whom the elders would be purchasing Hinata's "services" from on behalf of Uchiha and for how much. Shikamaru got the elders to authorize a handsome value paid to Hiashi Hyuuga from Uchiha funds based on historical archives chronicling the practice in the past. He also recommended that they offer to enthusiastically and publicly support Hanabi's designation as the next head of the clan. That last part was difficult for him to recommend, he felt almost as if he were _agreeing_ with Hiashi that Hinata would not be a suitable leader of the clan. But from a purely logical standpoint he had to admit that it would help to calm any offended sensibilities the man might have over the whole matter. It couldn't hurt for Hiashi to feel that the elders were now agreeing with him after resisting the idea of his bypassing Hinata for all these years. The irony was that it was Hinata herself who was orchestrating the deal and rather shrewdly at that.

Eventually all the i's were dotted and all the t's were crossed and the eight of them were witness to the agreement that Shikamaru struck on Hinata's behalf with the elders of the village of Konoha.

Walking out of the room Hinata was weak with relief and disbelief at what they had just accomplished. She was also slightly dreading having to face Shikamaru and apologize for what she had just put him through.

As the three cleared the door of the Hokage building and exited into the streets of Konoha she turned to him and bowed so deeply he was embarrassed. "Shikamaru-san, I cannot thank you enough for you assistance today. I am…ashamed that I had to put you through this but I knew I needed your expertise in seeing any flaws that I may have missed. Please forgive me for any embarrassment I may have caused you."

"Knock it off, Hinata," Shikamaru shrugged and laughed, wishing she would hurry up and rise from her formal bow. Being embarrassed was too much of a drag. When she finally did rise and meet his eyes he saw how worried she was that she had offended him.

"Nah, you didn't embarrass me," he reassured her. "I'm just wondering why I never asked you if you wanted to play Shogi before."


	5. Voices From The Past

**Voices From The Past**

Sasuke stared at the small scroll in front of him, his face a mixture of disbelief and rage. His initial burst of anger had come simply when he recognized the handwriting after breaking the seal of the scroll the messenger hawk had delivered. The neat, tidy script was unmistakable. After five years he thought he had put that part of his life behind him.

Unfortunately she had not. And her chakra detection skills were obviously honed to a high level if she had been able to sense his location with this much time and distance separating them.

_Karin._

But it wasn't just the fact that she dared to contact him that triggered his ire. The actual content of her message was equally disturbing if not more so. He started to tear the paper in two but stopped himself in case he might need to study it later for clues as to what her actual game was. Instead he crumpled it in disgust and then straightened it out again to read it a second and then a third time.

Mouthing the words silently to himself he pored over them one more time then shook his head. It was absolutely preposterous what Karin was alleging. And yet, Konoha and it's leadership had been responsible over the years for more than one atrocity. Although, he mused, he was surprised that Tsunade would allow something like this on her watch. During his time with the snake sannin, he had heard Orochimaru grumble often enough about Tsunade's inflated sense of moral superiority.

_Orochimaru._

Another name from his past. Only this one dredged up even more uncomfortable memories. Karin's threat had always been veiled and somewhat ludicrous – she never wanted to specifically harm him, only use him for her own ridiculous romantic purposes. Purposes which he easily brushed aside.

But the time he spent with Orochimaru had been far more dangerous and damaging, an unhealthy symbiosis. He had consented to the sannin's experiments because he needed to be trained by him in order to advance his techniques. Those experiments had been at times painful and at other times humiliating. And one of them apparently had left him in the situation he faced now.

Konoha was trying to breed a Sharingan user.

His stomach lurched over. Who the hell were they to play god with his clan, his family, his genes?

He forced himself to re-read Karin's letter yet again, this time trying to not let rage cloud his ability to look for clues in what she had written.

Konoha had obtained his DNA. They had recovered it from a labyrinthine lair he had occupied with Orochimaru in the past. And they were now planning to convince a Hyuuga woman to bear a child who could grow up to one day activate its own Sharingan. There were a lot more flowery phrases from Karin and promises to do anything at all she could to help thrown in but that was the gist of it. The purple prose she had surrounded it with simply brought back to mind all too clearly how nauseatingly close she had tried to get to him while a member of Team Hebi.

Team Hebi.

Team Hebi was no more. Juugo and Suigetsu had died and he had assumed Karin had simply abandoned the team. Not that he cared. After Itachi's death he'd had no need of her special skill and she was only marginally adept at any other practical techniques he might make use of. When she didn't come back one time he hadn't even bothered to find out where or why she'd gone. It hadn't even been worth the effort and truth to tell he was glad to be rid of her. He eventually learned she'd gone with the Leaf ninja contingent after an encounter and he was content to just leave her there. He'd reasoned he would deal with her when he took care of the rest of the Leaf.

After the dissolution of the original Team Hebi Sasuke had headed south to recover from the battles for and with Madara. He'd endangered his own life for the man and that could not be allowed to happen. His original plan had been to occupy one of the snake-sannin's unused facilities in the south and prepare for his own final revenge on Konoha. The village would be obliterated and there would be a new Uchiha clan someday but on his terms, not as a result of some Orochimaru-esque eugenics program.

South and west he'd gone to begin again. The new Team Taka he'd assembled here was not even close to being the equal of the originals' skills but they served as efficient subordinates. He kept a low profile and that was why Karin's note was even more surprising.

Was it really possible that her chakra-sense was that keen? If that were true then it was most unsettling.

But the other point he had to consider was that the entire story was a fabrication of Karin's. Perhaps this was some elaborate ruse to lure him out of hiding. Or the delusions of an emotionally and mentally unstable woman? Why would she concoct such a far-fetched tale if there wasn't some truth behind it?

He couldn't take the chance. He knew the possibility existed. That alone was enough to prompt him to take action. Sasuke would have to infiltrate Konoha and neutralize this new threat. The nature of the matter was so embarrassing, so delicate that he could not trust it to anyone else. There was no one he could confide in.

He would deal with Karin at the same time he removed this threat to his own family's lineage. The rest of Konoha might have to wait a little longer for his revenge but two kunoichi shouldn't be particularly hard to deal with.

There was a further complication, though. Karin's senses were too sharp. She would detect his approach.

"Seito," he called for one of the newer shinobi to join up with him.

"Yes, Sasuke-sama?" a teenage boy of medium height and build with straight brown hair answered pausing at the doorway to bow lightly before entering.

"We're leaving. Tell the others."

"Immediately," he replied. "Where shall I tell them we're going and when will we return?"

Sasuke glared at the boy. "You won't tell them anything other than that you and I are leaving. We'll return when we return," he said sharply.

"Yes, Sasuke-sama," Seito acknowledged then bowed once more a little more formally and left to do as he was instructed.

Seito was a reliable shinobi with an interesting ninjutsu. He could mask his own chakra. It made him a useful espionage agent. Sasuke was hoping he could extend that cloaking ability to his own chakra signature as well, or at least mute it enough so that Karin would not recognize it. He hoped Seito could sustain the masking long enough for the seven day trip to Konoha.

Sasuke looked at the note in his hand once more then incinerated it. He couldn't take a chance on leaving it lying around.

* * *

Hinata shivered with anticipation as she stood outside the door to Konoha's medical center. She rubbed her upper left arm gently, remembering the last two weeks of HCG shots she'd received in order to stimulate ovulation. There was no pain only the memory of them as testament to what she was about to do.

The medical center was nearly empty. This procedure like all her visits for the shots preceding it had been scheduled for late in the day. The council and Tsunade were still keeping this under tight secrecy. Only the original eight who had been in on the negotiations and the top level Hyuuga clan representatives were aware of what was going on.

Kurenai was waiting for her at the door. "Ready?" she smiled warmly at her.

Hinata grinned herself. "Ready as I'll ever be I suppose." She paused then added most sincerely, "Thank you again, Kurenai-sensei, for coming with me."

"Hinata. Of course I'm here for you…and my future godchild," she said conspiratorially as she linked her arm through the younger woman's and together they went into the center.

As they entered the procedure room Hinata was struck by the sterile and decidedly medical surroundings. She didn't know what she had expected, it was basically just a regular examination room. The two kunoichi waited a few moments and then Shizune came in.

"So, Hinata, how are you feeling? Any side effects from the injections?" she asked flipping through her charts.

"No. I mean, I'm feeling fine, no side effects," Hinata responded. "Well, maybe just a little anxious, that's all."

Shizune smiled. "I think that's to be expected. Okay, let me explain the procedure to you. With intrauterine placement we have about a 25% chance of success for women with fertility problems. Given your age and overall health plus no known fertility problems there's an excellent chance that pregnancy will result from one procedure today. If not, we can continue the injections in a few more weeks and try again next month."

"W-when will I know, Shizune-san?" Hinata asked.

"Two weeks. Give it two weeks before you try a pregnancy test. Okay?"

"Two weeks?" Hinata sounded surprised.

"Sometimes it takes a day or two after the procedure for a woman to actually conceive. And then it can take several days before your hormones settle down enough to give a reliable indication."

"O-okay," Hinata said then grinned, "it's just that's it's going to be difficult to wait that long."

"I imagine so. Well, there's no harm in peeing on a stick earlier if you want to, but don't assume that if the first test is negative that you're not pregnant. Let's see if you can hold out at least seven days before trying a test, okay?"

"Okay," Hinata agreed and all three women laughed.

"Right, then, well, I'll leave you get changed and then be back in a few minutes," Shizune said. She paused before turning to leave. "Hinata, Tsunade wanted me to make sure you understood why she's not the one here doing the medical procedure."

"I know. I understand. She told me herself already," Hinata answered. Tsunade had called her to her office for a long conversation after the meeting with the elders. At first Hinata had been terrified that Tsunade disagreed with her decision. But the older woman had just wanted to make sure the Hyuuga girl knew that she respected her right to make that decision. Although not what Tsunade herself would have chosen, she assured Hinata that she supported her and would help her in any way possible. They had had several more conversations over the last few days and Hinata could see why Sakura was so devoted to her teacher. Although not quite as warm as Kurenai, she was caring in her own way.

One of their later talks had turned to the general topic of the good of the village. Tsunade felt compelled to let Hinata know that she had to decline being the one to perform the procedure. As Hokage, she felt the topic was already too politically sensitive and she couldn't afford any conflict of interests between her medical and leadership responsibilities.

"Tsunade just wanted me to be sure you knew she supports you 100%," Shizune said.

"Yes, I know. Please tell her for me," Hinata reassured the medical specialist.

"Right, then, well, I'll just let you…slip into something more comfortable while I get things ready," Shizune said with a faint grin as she handed Hinata a standard examination gown. She and Kurenai left the room for Hinata to change, with Kurenai waiting in the hall.

Hinata changed into the gown, folding her own clothes neatly on the counter. "You can come back in now Kurenai," she said softly to her friend out in the hallway.

"How do I look?" she asked when Kurenai re-entered.

"You don't really want me to answer that, do you, Hinata?" she replied drolly and both women laughed.

"It's not exactly wedding night material," Hinata mused as she hopped up onto the table.

"You're not exactly getting married you know," Kurenai pointed out and there was another round of excited nervous laughter.

Soon there was a light knock on the door. Kurenai arched an eyebrow up as if to say to Hinata 'this is it.' Hinata nodded then called out, "Come in Shizune."

"Ready?" Shizune asked as she peeked in the door before entering.

"Ready," Hinata affirmed. "What do I do?"

"At this point, Hinata," Shizune chuckled, "You don't need to do anything but lie back and…think of Konoha."

Hinata complied and Kurenai moved to stand beside her student at the head of the bed, taking one of Hinata's small hands in her own.

"All right, Hinata, this shouldn't be too uncomfortable, possibly some slight cramping, nothing more," Shizune talked softly as she worked. Hinata kept her gaze fixed on Kurenai.

After just a couple of moments, Shizune announced. "Okay, we're done."

Hinata's brow knit, confused. "That's it? That's all there is to it?"

"Yes, well, you're probably not the first girl to make that observation," Shizune said dryly but with a gleam in her eye as she turned to begin putting things away.

Kurenai burst out laughing. It took Hinata a moment to get the joke and when she did she blushed furiously.

"So what should I do now?" she asked after regaining her composure.

"Lie here and wait a few minutes, say ten or twenty, then go home, get plenty of rest, eat well, stay healthy and come back and see me in a couple of weeks. We'll see if you're pregnant."


	6. Plans

**Plans**

Shikamaru surveyed the quartermaster's store with displeasure. He was taking inventory, preparing to requisition what was needed for the upcoming chuunin exams and noted that the entire supply of exploding tags was nearly gone. A stray note or two fluttered to the floor and he bent to retrieve them.

The slender Nara man sighed, he'd seen some of the younger genin out horsing around in the evenings making impromptu fireworks displays out of the tags. He realized it was almost a right of passage, he and Chouji had done the same thing back when they were kids but still he'd have to nag them about it. It was one thing to use a few of them for such pranks but to severely deplete the supply to this point was inconveniencing a lot of shinobi who might legitimately need them on missions.

He mentally ran down the list of genin suspects and then added their respective sensei's to the list of those he'd have to gently remind, or _nag_, about respect for property. Shikamaru added Konohamaru's name to the list for good measure. Even though the teenager was a chuunin by now and getting a little old for such childish antics, Shikamaru had a suspicion that he may have helped himself to more tags than were technically necessary for his latest missions.

Nagging.

It was a skill Shikamaru had become rather adept at lately.

The irony was not lost on him.

Since taking over responsibilities for administering the chuunin exams he'd found he had to nag the senseis to ready their students, the proctors to actually commit to showing up for their assigned time slots, his _dad_ to even commit to assigning him jounin to be used as proctors in the first place. And Tsunade. She was the worst. There was an inordinate amount of inter-village paperwork that needed to be in place each year prior to the exams. All she needed to do was to sign the damned things and yet she never managed to get around to it. Shikamaru wondered how Shizune put up with the woman on a day-to-day basis.

What had seemed like an easy job at first that would get him out of a lot of off-site missions had turned into more work than he had imagined.

But it did have its upside, he mused as he continued on down the aisles completing his inventory. The job did, as expected, keep him in the village for the most part. And given the current...mission...that he was assisting Hinata with that was a good thing.

He...worried about Hinata. He _nagged_ her, too. He nagged her to take greater care for her own safety. Shikamaru felt that she didn't see all the potential dangers that he did.

The biggest threat to her that he anticipated at the moment came from her clan itself. There was no predicting what the fallout from the elder's proposal to Hyuuga would be. He had played out several scenarios in his mind, but the number of variables made it exponentially complex.

Hyuuga Hiashi was the most likely to be offended. It was one thing to tell your daughter her entire life that she was worthless. It was another to actually have the village leaders agree with you - to essentially tell the man 'we concur - you have raised an ineffective leader.'

The council was agreeing with his assessment of his younger daughter's skills, but the unspoken subtext was that Hiashi had failed when it came to Hinata. Shikamaru recognized Hiashi Hyuuga as a prideful man and it was just not possible to assess how he would handle this.

Then there were the additional Main and Branch family subgroups within the clan itself to deal with. How might this play out with them? The Main family would probably go along with Hiashi's position whatever that turned out to be. And Koharu seemed to have a relationship with some of Hinata's elderly aunts, one in particular that she thought would be inclined to view this in Hinata's favor. She felt the woman would be influential over Hiashi himself. But even if Hiashi accepted the situation, how would the Branch family react? Rebellion against the Main family had simmered under the surface for years. Would they see this 'use' of the Main family's control over Byakuugan as the ultimate betrayal? Employing a Main family member with unrestricted use of the technique to re-spawn a second clan while keeping the Branch family subservient with the Caged Bird Seal?

So far things had proceeded acceptably. Shikamaru wasn't involved in the Hyuuga negotiations directly but he was kept informed by Tsunade. Not unexpectedly, Hiashi had bristled - torn between the elders agreement with his preference for Hanabi and their tacit implication that he had failed with Hinata. But to her credit, Koharu had been spot on in her assessment of her elderly Hyuuga friend's opinion on the matter. And apparently the old woman carried quite some clout within the Hyuuga clan. Hiashi may have chafed and sulked but ultimately he had gone along with it and in effect 'sold' his daughter to the dormant Uchiha clan.

Clan leadership may have been on board but that only widened the circle of people who knew. The general population of Hyuuga had yet to be informed, as had the general population of Konoha. Shikamaru felt as if he were waiting for the other shoe to drop when the Branch family found out.

To top it off, all this was only a portion of it. There were also still the medical realities to take into account. Over the last few weeks Shikamaru had learned more about the female reproductive cycle than he really needed to know.

The gist of which was Hinata was trying to get pregnant.

Today.

He found that he liked the quiet sanctuary of his storeroom even more. This was all extraordinarily complex. With Shogi you had a fixed number of pieces on the board with a defined set of moves. Human beings could do anything.

* * *

Shikamaru met with Kurenai and Hinata in the early evening at Kurenai's house. Hinata had been alternating spending her time between there and her own apartment. The three of them sat outside and had tea while watching Kurenai's son playing in the back yard.

"So, err, how are you?" Shikamaru asked awkwardly.

Hinata blushed and smiled. "I am fine, Shikamaru, thank you."

Shikamaru shot Kurenai a look almost as if he were asking for confirmation. "Yes, Shikamaru, she's fine", the kunoichi assured him. "We came back here and I even made her take a nap, too."

"Okay, well...that's good...I suppose. And er...how did it go?" he stumbled over his words.

Hinata looked bewildered. "As I said, Shikamaru, I am fine. You don't need to be concerned." She still looked puzzled.

He coughed and cleared his throat. "What I mean, is...ummm...are you pregnant?"

Hinata and Kurenai both laughed. "She won't know that for a few days, Shikamaru," Kurenai explained while Hinata sipped her tea with a smile. "Both of you," she looked at Hinata too, "need to be a little patient." She said this with mock sternness in her voice.

"Yes, Kurenai-sensei," Hinata agreed, amused to to see Shikamaru as anxious to know the outcome as she had been just a few hours earlier.

"Oh, right," Shikamaru said. "Well, um...can she walk? I mean take a walk?"

Hinata's smile was wide and happy with amusement. "Of course I can, Shikamaru. I won't break you know."

"You two run along," Kurenai rose from her seat gathering the cups to clear the table. "Hinata, are you staying here tonight? Or back at your apartment?"

"I want her to come back here, tonight," Shikamaru answered then apologized. "Sorry, Hinata, I just don't want you to go back to your apartment alone from now on."

"Of course, Shikamaru. Whatever you think is best," Hinata answered. She had asked her friend for his advice and it was obvious this was weighing heavily on him. "Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing specifically, it's just that I want you, us, to all be as prepared as we can be," he answered.

The two kunoichi nodded in agreement and then Shikamaru and Hinata left assuring Kurenai that they would be back before midnight.

Shikamaru led Hinata through town to the edge of the village proper where it bordered with the Nara clan lands.

"Where are we going, Shikamaru?" Hinata asked him, curious but still trusting in his judgment.

"I want to discuss some alternatives with you about your living arrangements," he answered her. "I know you have your own place and that you're also always welcome at Kurenai's, but there are some other factors I want you to consider."

The two of them departed the village walking at first but then Hinata reminded him, "Shikamaru, I'm happy to walk but if it's a good distance away we could go a little faster, you know. I am still a shinobi."

"Right," he agreed somewhat embarrassed. "You're sure it's okay?"

Hinata grinned and reassured him one more time. "Yes, Shikamaru, I am sure it's okay."

With that the two of them whisked lightly through the treetops over the Nara lands, Shikamaru still leading at a fairly easy pace but Hinata didn't say anything else, not wanting to fluster him further. She found his concern actually kind of sweet.

Soon they came to a little cabin very remote from any other structures they had passed. Shikamaru led her inside. It was small but comfortably furnished. And it obviously appeared to be smack in the middle of his clan's homeland.

"It's a research cabin," he explained. "There are some particular botanical specimens that are most abundant in this part of our forest. It's owned by the main research center of the Nara labs but not used this time of year, only in the spring when the flowers bloom. No one who is _not_ Nara is going to get here without someone _from_ Nara knowing about it. It's remote but defensible."

Hinata nodded and looked around the place. It was rustic but still welcoming. Obviously with a good store of provisions someone could live here comfortably for quite a period of time. "It's nice, Shikamaru. I could stay here but...do you really think I need too?"

Shikamaru considered his answer. "The biggest unknown right now is going to be the people's reactions as the news gets out assuming you do get..." he motioned at her middle.

"Pregnant?" she supplied helpfully.

"Yes. Assuming that. It wouldn't be permanent but I'd just feel that you were more secure between the time news gets out and when things settle down and people accept it. My biggest problem in arranging your security is going to be people. The fewer that are around the better. And if the ones that are around are the ones you and I trust implicitly and _only_ those ones then I'll feel better still. There's this place and... one other option."

Detecting the hesitation in his voice Hinata looked at him with curiosity in her eyes. "What's the other one?"

"Come with me," he instructed holding the door open for her and then closing it firmly behind him as they left. He seemed unusually solemn to Hinata.

They picked up their path again and continued at the light brisk pace from earlier through the treetops. But they angled sharply after they crested a ridge and Shikamaru called back to her. "Nara clan lands bordered Uchiha along this stretch of the forest. The entire compound is accessible but from the rear. I don't know if you would consider it but...lore and taboo would keep the curious and the casually disgruntled away. You could come and go via my clan's lands and no one would really realize that these buildings were once again occupied. And after all... they essentially belong to you now."

Up ahead in the distance as the trees cleared, Hinata could see the buildings coming into view. In the deepening twilight it had a forlorn air of emptiness about it that even the remote little cabin didn't have. The two of them stopped at the edge where the forest met the first streets of the Uchiha compound.

Hinata looked up and down the streets and then started walking down one past the first dilapidated shops that led into the village.

"I remember coming here as a child," she whispered. "My mother was friends with Sasuke's mother. She would bring us here to play with him sometimes."

"Yeah, me too," Shikamaru joined her, their footsteps echoing softly on the deserted cobblestone streets. His hands were shoved into his flak vest pockets. "Mostly we went to Choiji's but sometimes we'd come here to visit."

"We got dango there," Hinata pointed at one of the little shops near the edge of the lake they were passing. "And green tea ice cream here," she pointed at a second shop.

Shikamaru didn't say anything just let her walk to wherever her feet would carry her. They crossed over a bridge and down a few small residential side streets and Hinata paused in front of one particular house. "And Sasuke lived...here," she whispered.

"Yeah," was all he could manage to add as the two of them stood silently on the street searching their childhood memories for glimpses of their long-lost friend and his family.

Shikamaru studied Hinata's face - her eyes brimmed with tears but at the same time she seemed composed. "If it's too much, Hinata," he said to reassure her, "you've always got the cabin. Or you can stay at your apartment or Kurenai's place. I just wanted you to know what your options are and the advantages of the ones you might not have considered."

"No. It's not too much. It's all so sad, but... not too much," she wiped her eyes and then stepped up onto the porch of Sasuke's house, her hand on one post as she continued. "You're right of course. Either or both would be good choices for their remoteness, their defensibility. I...thank you...for showing them to me. But I'll decide later. Tonight we should go back to Kurenai's."

Shikamaru just nodded. There was a familiar tone in her voice when she addressed him and he wondered where he'd heard it before. Then he remembered, she sounded like Tsunade did when she addressed his dad.


	7. Future and Past

**Future and Past**

Hinata surveyed her work thus far. Wiping the dust off her hands and then placing them on her hips she looked around the dilapidated house she had chosen and admitted proudly to herself that things were starting to shape up. There was more work to be done, that was for certain, but still she had made some progress in cleaning and restoring one of the Uchiha homes for her own use.

Well, Shikamaru, Sakura and she together had done so she corrected herself. So far, those were the only two 'guards' in her rotation. She felt somewhat self-conscious about using her friends as her personal bodyguards but Hinata recognized the necessity. The topic was still closely guarded, outside the original group only the Hyuuga Main Family leadership was aware of what was going on.

A leadership which now included Hanabi.

It had been a bittersweet meeting between herself and her sister, one which Hinata had done on her own without even telling Shikamaru as soon as the contract was signed between the village elders and her father. She'd invited Hanabi to her apartment and explained the situation to her personally. Initially Hanabi was tearful, feeling that she had somehow been responsible for driving Hinata away but after numerous firm reassurances from her older sister that was not and could never be the case, Hanabi calmed down and was as consumed with curiosity about the whole procedure and process Hinata was going through as any other fifteen year old girl could be expected to be. They had spent the rest of the weekend giggling and gossiping as sisters have done since time immemorial and when it was over, Hinata was beyond relieved to know that her sister would be her staunchest ally through all that lay ahead.

Hinata looked around the empty room. Sakura had been gone for a few minutes to fetch some more water so that they could continue cleaning. Unfortunately there were some significant repairs that were going to be needed on any of the buildings in the Uchiha compound before they could be considered fully inhabitable. Plumbing was among one of her top priorities but she'd have to wait until her circle of conspirators included someone skilled in that area.

Shikamaru had grumbled half-heartedly and complained that her apartment, Kurenai's house and the cabin were all completely occupiable, _now._ In his opinion, any effort spent to restore a Uchiha house until the plumbing and electricity could be restored was simply work for the sake of work. Nonetheless he had pitched in to help the two kunoichi. He had been particularly adamant about being the one to do any work at a height, extracting a promise from Hinata not to climb any ladders or stepstools.

"Here we go," Sakura announced, returning with two buckets full of water from the lake so that they could continue scrubbing the floors.

"Thank you, Sakura," Hinata smiled, reaching to take one bucket and set it on the floor near her mop.

"No problem," the pink-haired fellow kunoichi said, taking a break and sitting on a dusty end table. "We've got a lot more to do, don't we?" she smiled back, raising a dusty palm and holding it out to show Hinata.

"Yes, we do, but we'll get there," Hinata said encouragingly as she turned to dip her mop in the bucket. She paused, curious about something. "Sakura, may I ask you a question?"

"Huh? Sure, Hinata, what is it?" her friend replied, wiping her forehead with a bandana then stuffing it back into a pocket.

"It's about Shikamaru, he seems...overly concerned. Especially about the ladders. Am I really likely to lose my balance?"

"Well, balance problems aren't uncommon, but it's usually later in pregnancy," Sakura started in her best medical student voice. "What's probably more likely would be loose joints. When you're pregnant your body produces a hormone that allows the ligaments and bone ends to relax and stretch to accommodate the baby and for delivery. But the hormone's in your body, it's not just limited to those particular ligaments, so it is possible that you would be more likely to... twist your ankle for example."

"But would that happen to me even now? It's only been a few days and..."

Sakura shrugged, "Probably not but...Shikamaru's a guy...the whole process is like science fiction for them." And with that she laughed and Hinata joined her.

As she turned to begin mopping the room they were in a stray thought crossed Hinata's mind. Sakura hadn't been doing any of the tasks requiring climbing either. Shikamaru had done all the inspecting of the roof, ceiling repairs and hanging of curtains that had been required so far. She wondered if this was just a coincidence or...

"Sakura," she began slowly, smiling to herself and keeping her eyes down focused on the area of floor she was cleaning, "I noticed you haven't been climbing anything either..." she let her voice trail off and chanced a look up at her friend.

Sakura was blushing furiously, her face almost matching her hair.

"You _are_ pregnant!" Hinata announced with delight. "Why didn't you tell me?" She let her mop fall to the ground and rushed over to hug her friend.

Sakura laughed and hugged her back. "Yeah, I am, we are..."

"But how could you keep it a secret?"

"Hey," Sakura joked back, "look who's talking about keeping pregnancies secret." Then she added somewhat more seriously. "We, ah, I haven't really told anyone except Naruto, Tsunade and Shizune yet. About the time I found out, this, ah, whole situation with you came up and it just ... I just didn't want to influence you in any way."

Sakura was overly cautious, aware she was treading on delicate ground with Hinata with respect to Naruto.

She needn't have worried. Hinata had long since given up Naruto to Sakura in her heart with no ill feelings. She was genuinely happy for both her friends. "I know you've kept it a secret, Sakura-chan but how is it possible that Naruto-kun has managed to..."

"To keep his mouth shut?" Sakura finished for her.

Hinata nodded.

"Well, first of all, Tsunade threatened him with bodily harm if he said anything to anybody before I was ready. And secondly, she's been running him all over the Five Nations on one mission after another just to keep him out of Konoha and to keep him from talking. She told him it was so he wouldn't have to travel as much when the baby got here, but she and I both know it's to keep him from blabbing."

"Well, it's wonderful. Congratulations. How far along are you?"

Sakura shrugged. "About three months. Tsunade says I'll start showing soon. We won't be able to keep it a secret then will we?"

Hinata nodded in agreement, hugged her once again wishing her the best then returned to her mopping, lost in thought over her own potential pregnancy. Suddenly she was consumed with the need to know whether she was or was not actually going to have a baby. She had promised Shizune she'd wait and not get her hopes up, but then again, Shizune had reassured her there was no harm that could come from doing a test, only the possibility of disappointment.

But she couldn't very well run back to the village to pick up a pregnancy test now, could she? Not only would that draw undue suspicion if she were to actually purchase one at the pharmacy, it was quite frankly a stupid thing to do - dash off from the Uchiha compound, through Nara lands all the way back to Konoha's city limits.

However, there was another way, an older way that she could use. She'd been able to resist the temptation up until now, but being here with Sakura, _knowing_ that she was pregnant, Hinata found she just had to know about herself, too. Now.

"Sakura," she called back over her shoulder where her friend was working on the other side of the room. "I think there are some more buckets in the kitchen. We're going to need the water anyway, so I think I'll go down to the lake to get some."

"Sure," Sakura said. "I'll be right here."

Heart beating a staccato rhythm, Hinata darted to the kitchen to fetch the two spare buckets. She hurried down the short path to the lake, walked out to the edge of the dock and sat down, trying to steady her breathing. She wasn't nervous she was...excited.

It had fallen out of favor over the years, but Hyuuga women of her grandmother's and great-aunts' generations had routinely used Byakuugan to determine if they were pregnant. Village women and those of other clans had been quite jealous of this ability and so it had become talked about less and less among her own clan. With the advent of inexpensive early home pregnancy tests, the jealousy factor had gone away, now any woman could find out within a very few days whether or not conception had occurred. Most younger Hyuuga women preferred to do things the same way as their fellow villagers and so now hardly anyone within her clan used the technique.

Still, it could be done. Easily. If she could just settle herself down from her giddy trembling to try to find out.

Sitting on the dock as the sun set lower over the lake she tried to calm her breathing, forcing herself to take several deep steady breaths followed by long exhales. When she felt ready she activated her Byakuugan and looked within herself. Following the paths of her own chakra network to her womb she began methodically searching for what she was looking for.

Only a week. Seven days had gone by. She was searching for the tiniest group of cells.

There! She saw a spark, just a flicker, the smallest flash of chakra.

And it didn't match her own chakra signature.

Wow!

With a long drawn out breath she sat there on the dock, happy and elated and scared and drained and exuberant all at the same time.

Gazing just a little longer she watched the sparkle that pulsed and flickered of its own accord. Before she deactivated her Byakugan she whispered, "Well, hello there."

Scooping up two buckets of water she dashed back up the path to tell Sakura the news. Their earlier conversation echoed in her head and she realized she should be extra careful not to lose her balance. But as good as she felt, as _great_ as she felt it was hard to imagine anything bad actually happening to her.

* * *

Shikamaru studied the shelves in disbelief. It had been less than a week. The paper tags he had stocked up on were running low again. Not depleted, but still far lower than he would have expected. This had gone far enough. Genin pranks were one thing, but this was too much. Until now he'd been satisfied to merely speak to a general audience of suspects and remind them in broad terms about proper use of stores.

Now, he was going to have to get to the bottom of this and find out precisely who was involved. He groaned inwardly. This might even require disciplinary action. How troublesome.

How had he ever wound up with this job?

He grumbled and took a couple of the long-burning high luminosity ones with him. With no electricity at the Uchiha houses and the days getting shorter as summer drew to a close, he thought they might need a few in the evenings to finish up the tasks Hinata had laid out.

He looked at the clock. Ino would probably be getting off her shift at the medical center about now. He hadn't seen her and Choji in a while, he'd been spending so much time with Hinata. He decided to take a short detour by her place of work to check in with her and see how things were going.

As he entered the medical center he met a young woman with red hair and glasses. Karin. He'd seen her around the village, remembered when she returned to Konoha with them, but otherwise he didn't know much about her. She was a rather unremarkable kunoichi. She kept herself employed as a shinobi within Konoha running fairly routine missions on a regular basis. Reliable but unremarkable - that's how he would describe her.

Quickly trotting up the steps he turned the corner and went down the cool hall where Ino was just hanging up her lab coat.

"Hey, Shikamaru," she brightened. "Haven't seen you for a while. It's Friday night, you going to make it to barbeque with us tonight?"

"Nah, not tonight, got some things I've got to get done for the exams." Technically it wasn't a lie and she'd be in on the whole story soon enough but he still felt a little guilty for misleading his best friend.

Ino grinned. "Well, Mr. Responsibility, whoever thought I'd see you take a job so seriously." She patted his cheek. "Your mom must be so proud." She turned to put away a few items in the drug locker and accidentally knocked a binder off the table where it was lying.

"I got it," Shikamaru offered, leaning to pick it up. The binder had spread open and a few pages fluttered free. As he bent to retrieve them all he realized it was an appointment book. Karin's name was on several of the pages indicating appointments over the last few days.

Interesting.

"What's Karin coming in so much for?" he asked casually. "She sick or something?"

Ino loosened her ponytail and turned and fixed him with a piercing blue stare. "So - Mr. Responsibility is Mr. Nosy, now too? You know I can't tell you that. It's privileged medical information." Her tone was crisp and no-nonsense much more grown up than his irritating twelve year old teammate had been. She reached around and regathered her hair, putting it back up into a fresh ponytail. The motion of her chest when she raised her arms as she completed this maneuver reminded him that there were a _lot_ of things more appealing about twenty-something Ino than there had been about twelve-year old Ino.

"Hey, it was just a question," he tried to defend himself, curiosity piqued more than ever.

As she gathered her things and ushered him out the door, turning out the light behind her, she responded thin-lipped and quietly, "Let's just say, Orochimaru was a monster."


	8. Bad Memories and Exciting News

**Bad Memories and Exciting News**

Sasuke perched in a tree at the edge of the Forest of Death. Through that labyrinth of green lay Konoha, his former home. They were close enough now that he felt Seito should begin cloaking their chakra signatures. Over the last several days he had had the younger ninja practice extending his chakra-muting jutsu to cover the both of them. Sasuke didn't trust it enough yet to completely mask his own identity, but in the current situation no one would actually be _looking_ for him inside the village itself. All he needed Seito to do would be to muffle their signatures enough so that they wouldn't be immediately recognizable.

He paused on a tree branch looking down and considered his options. Should he capture Karin or go after Hinata herself?

Grimly he recognized that there was one important task that needed to be completed before dealing with either of those two kunoichi. Sasuke ordered Seito to accompany him, maintaining the cloak but also trying to detect Karin. Their first stop would be the medical center. Whether or not Karin's ludicrous allegations about Hinata were true, there was absolutely no doubt that the possibility existed after what Orochimaru had done to him. Whatever genetic material had fallen into Konoha's hands would have to be destroyed to prevent any possibility of such a thing in the future. Once he had dealt with that personally then he could decide what to do about the two women.

Slipping through the streets of Konoha memories came flooding back to him. His feet automatically remembered the path to the medical center. Konoha had been rebuilt after Pein's attack but the layout was still familiar. The Hokage tower loomed over the village center, attached to the library and medical center. Seito's cloak must have been working very well, no guards confronted them and passers-by paid little attention to them.

A late summer Friday night and people were out and about for the evening chatting happily. Wistful memories started to rise like the evening's mist in Sasuke's mind, memories of similar summer evenings when his parents would take him and his brother out for a treat. Sasuke quickly relegated those memories to the back of his mind.

Other memories, darker ones now started to surface as they approached the medical center. They darted around to the back and crept in stealthily through an alternate entrance. The place was dark, they were at the back of the building, the duty nurses at the front had no idea they had entered. Sasuke left Seito stationed at their illicit entrance while he silently crept through cold and sterile hallways. No need to enter the patient wings of the facility, what he was searching for would be in a lab area.

He finally came upon what he was looking for in a freezer. Retrieving the vials from their chilly storage compartment he thought back bitterly to the shame and the pain and the outrage he had endured under Orochimaru's tutelage. He had gone to him for knowledge and Orochimaru had delivered but the price had been high.

The black-haired young man smashed vial after vial on the ground grinding them under one foot. Violently he then upended the container of_ all_ the samples from Orochimaru's labs and destroyed the remainder, not just his own. No one who had been a victim of that monster should have those memories continue to haunt them in this way, a threat held over their heads for eternity. And if they were dead already at least they deserved the dignity of remaining dead, not having their bloodline resurrected in some program fit only for livestock.

"Let's go," he whispered tersely to Seito as he rejoined his companion.

Seito thought about asking his master about his completed task but one look at Sasuke's face caused him to think better of it. "Hai, to where my Lord?"

"Follow me," Sasuke replied heading back toward the edge of the village.

* * *

Shikamaru left Yakiniku Q after having been wheedled into coming by Ino. Actually 'wheedle' probably wasn't the right word, he admitted to himself. It more likely had something to do with her dismissive 'suit yourself' and the swish of her long ponytail as she turned to walk away. Recently he found her mesmerizing and the idea of her having dinner alone tonight with just Choiji, even though he was his best friend, even though they were _all three_ best friends... it just hadn't sat well with him. So he had relented, caught up with her and enjoyed dinner with his old team.

Hinata was with Sakura, the two of them were still working on cleaning and that was certainly work he didn't mind avoiding just for one evening. They could get along fine for a couple of hours without assigning him a broom or a mop.

The young Nara man yawned and stretched and then started to walk toward the Uchiha compound, taking the circuitous back route where he would be less likely to be noticed by anyone in the streets. Mainly because there wouldn't be too many people in these streets.

So much of Konoha was new and shiny until one reached the Uchiha quarter. Even though the rest of the village had been renovated in a burst of enthusiastic building after the end of the last war, this area remained untouched, a ghost town. The crowds thinned out as did the occupied buildings. Shadows lengthened and then finally became simply the night itself. In this part of town, even the streetlights were frequently left unattended when they went out. Maintenance activities were few and far between here.

Shikamaru reviewed his reasoning behind even suggesting this location in the first place. Hinata's plan had been bold. Bold enough to require a bold statement. Living in a shared apartment with Kurenai, or in a borrowed cabin on Nara lands, while possibly safe in the short term failed to acknowledge the long term implications of what she was undertaking.

But reclaiming Uchiha lands and assets did.

Shikamaru smiled to himself. He had to give her credit - Hinata certainly did engage in long term strategic thinking. She had had the vision - his suggestion of this spot as a location for her new family was just an implementation detail.

Hinata.

Who would have thought her so bold?

And Ino.

When did she get to be so...fascinating?

Gah. Women were troublesome.

Movement flickered at the corner of his field of vision and he glanced over in the direction. A slim shape dipped into the edge of the forest. They had come from behind him but must have headed off at an angle upon catching sight of another person in the streets. He thought the figure seemed feminine but it could have just been a slender male. At first he considered following them but decided against it. The alleys here probably held several illicit gaming rooms and other questionable activities. Most likely he'd just happened to cross paths with someone who didn't want their business known.

Still, he remained on alert for any hint that the person or any persons might be following him.

Slipping into the his destination area he walked to the house under repair and saw with relief that Sakura was still with Hinata. Of course she would be - she was one of the most reliable shinobi he knew. Sakura would never be derelict in her duty. The two girls seemed to be happy as a pair of larks with broad smiles. He could hear an occasional chorus of giggles as he approached.

"Yo," he saluted the two of them.

If possible both their smiles became brighter as soon as they saw him.

"Shikamaru!" Hinata said with delight.

"Hey, Shikamaru," Sakura joined in equally giddy.

"Why so happy?" he asked and the two of them dissolved into laughter. Puzzled, because he himself had never been that thrilled about housework or any type of work for that matter. "Care to fill me in?"

"Please, Sakura,...can I tell him ...both?" Hinata looked at her friend with pleading eyes.

"Oh, all right," Sakura relented, still laughing and forgetting the earlier promise she had extracted from Hinata. "You can tell him...both."

"We're pregnant!" Hinata announced joyfully.

"Well, er, congratulations, " Shikamaru replied scratching the back of his head and not quite sure of protocol in these matters. Should he hug her? Then he stopped short and re-parsed what she had said.

"Wait a minute..._we're_ pregnant?" he asked looking from one kunoichi to the next.

Hinata nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, Sakura-chan, too."

Sakura just beamed. "Naruto's going to be angry. Tsunade and I have been threatening him to keep him from spilling the beans and now here I've gone and done it first. But you can't tell anybody, Shikamaru!" she added sternly. The look she gave him reminded him of his mom's "I-really-mean-it" look and so he quickly nodded his agreement.

In those few seconds Shikamaru's world changed forever. Hinata pregnant. Sakura pregnant. They were going to be mothers. Heck they already _were_ mothers. And Naruto was a _dad._

Until now Hinata's situation had been an interesting and complex problem to solve. But the baby part of it had been abstract not tangible. It was...a desired goal of Hinata's plan. But now...

_Holy shit_ Hinata was pregnant.

And Sakura too.

Holy shit.

This meant only one thing.

His mom was going to start hounding him relentlessly about settling down now and providing her with grandchildren.

They chatted for a while longer, with the girls doing most of the chatting and Shikamaru smiling and nodding politely all the while refining his plans for keeping Hinata safe now that they had progressed into what he preferred to think of as "Phase Two" rather than the "Oh-My-God-Hinata-Really-Is-Pregnant" phase. The proverbial shit would now really hit the fan.

The Hyuuga clan leadership had been kept silent by large bribes from Uchiha funds and the sternest of admonitions, otherwise known as threats, directed toward Hiashi by Tsunade, Koharu and his own aunt Chizu. But now they were on a schedule determined by the baby. In about ninety days Hinata would start showing and there would no longer be anyway to keep this secret.

He watched the two happy young women and wondered if they would be able to keep it secret that long.

Eventually Sakura realized the lateness of the hour and excused herself to head home, leaving Hinata in Shikamaru's care. It was late and he really did want her to go back to Kurenai's for the evening.

"Just a few more things to tidy up, Shikamaru," she wheedled. Although when Hinata wheedled it was rather more pleasant than when Ino did, he had to admit to himself.

Picking up the cleaning implements and stowing them away he thought he heard movement from the woods at the back of the yard. He paused, alert like a stag in the forest straining to either see or hear anything but there was nothing.

He briefly thought back to the stranger who crossed his path earlier this evening but once again dismissed it as a gambler or a drunk on their way home.


	9. Plans Come Together

**Plans Come Together**

Hinata busied herself with putting the cleaning things away in the utility closet off the kitchen. In the distance she could see the lights from Konoha as darkness settled over the village with the purple of twilight fading into the deeper color of the night. Overhead the first few faint stars were replaced with a more liberal sprinkling as they dotted the sky above her. It was a beautiful evening. She went out onto the porch to look for Shikamaru who had not yet returned inside.

Standing on the edge of the porch she breathed in deep the late summer scents of the night, ripe fruit on trees and fresh mowed grass that she'd managed to get Shikamaru to do earlier this morning. A chorus of crickets chirped heavily just off to her right. With no people active about in this area there were no sounds to compete with them. All in all the place gave her a deep feeling of contentment despite it's sorrowful history. As if to echo her feelings of peacefulness a graceful deer stepped to the edge of the lawn from the forest and nibbled slightly at the grass before bounding across the lawn and disappearing into the trees on the other side.

Idly she wondered if it was one of the Nara deer that had roamed over into these lands. That turned her thoughts back to Shikamaru - where could he be?

"Shikamaru?" she called out.

"Yeah. Be right there," he answered her and emerged from the trees. "Just checking some things out."

"Did you see anything?" she asked unsure if he was worried about something in particular or if this was just more of his overly solicitous nature lately.

"Nah," he said, not wanting to alarm her and not really sure he had seen anything anyway.

"Do you want me to check?" she smiled pleasantly pointing at her eyes.

He rolled his own eyes. Of course he had remembered her Byakugaan. There was simply no need. He thought he'd seen something when there wasn't anything there. "Don't worry about it," he said not wanting her to waste her efforts. "Come on, let's get packed up and get back to Kurenai's."

"Okay," Hinata agreed. "Just help me put these last few things away."

They both returned to the kitchen and stowed the remaining buckets and rinsed the rags, hanging them over the edge of the sink to dry. Just as Hinata turned off the tap they heard a rattle from outside.

"Was that one of the buckets falling?" she asked as Shikamaru stood listening.

"Probably just a raccoon. Have you or Sakura left any food outside?" Since they'd been here all day he reasoned they had probably eaten lunch and dinner in the area without bothering to return to town.

"No," Hinata shook her head, her long dark locks waving slightly at her shoulders. "We've treated it like a mission, packing in and out what we need."

Shikamaru yawned and tried to sound nonchalant even though there was a definite uneasiness running down his spine. Once was just a trick of the evening light on his eyes, but twice...

"Stay here," he instructed her, "I'll check outside once before we go."

Reluctantly, Hinata agreed. Shikamaru darted outside and into the deep velvet of the night. Suddenly the crickets no longer sounded so reassuring. Their singing could be masking any one of a number of other noises.

The Nara heir slowly patrolled the edge of the unruly overgrowth that encroached on the house left unattended for so many years. The area he had managed to cut for her today was small, only a tiny yard. The forest butted up very close to the house now, much closer than he remembered as a child when he played here with Sasuke. But the forest was his home, and he was at ease there.

The moon was out, the silver orb providing a fair amount of light. Still the shadows could play tricks even on him. A faint breeze stirred the air and there was a flicker of motion in the distance once again and he froze. He waited for what seemed like several moments peering toward the source of the motion. When it didn't appear threatening he approached slowly as it continued to sway faintly with the breeze.

What the hell?

Shikamaru reached out to touch a paper tag fluttering in the evening air. A spider-web thin line ran from it and he followed it to another tag. His tags. His _missing_ tags from the stores area where he had been inventorying recently.

What in the hell was going on here?

"Shikamaru?" he heard Hinata's voice from the porch again. "Shikamaru is everything okay?"

"Hinata, go back inside," he yelled realizing that there was some kind of trap set.

"What is it? Do you need help?" she called back, concern rising in her voice. "Let me see..."

Shikamaru's blood ran cold and he turned back to this house yelling, "Hinata, don't...!"

"Byakugaan," he heard her melodious voice as she invoked her clan's jutsu.

And all hell broke loose.

The paper bombs went off, coordinated by the shared fuse. Several dozen high intensity, high luminosity paper bombs exploded right in front of Hinata's fully engaged Byakugaan.

Pain seared along her optic nerves and Hinata crumpled to the ground completely consumed by it. The shock and disorientation were so complete she retched, overcome by waves of nausea. Byakugaan was integral to her entire chakra system and she felt synapses overload and flare out all through her body as she struggled to get to her hands and feet where she had been lying face down on the floor. Weak as one of the recently wrung-out rags she collapsed once more face down on the fresh scrubbed floor of the porch.

"Hinata!" Shikamaru's voice was full of alarm as he dashed back and dove down beside her. His hands were large and gentle as he eased her back up into a sitting position. Hinata's head was pounding, she raised both hands to her temples as she tried to catch her breath. "Sh-shikamaru? What's going on?"

"Step away from the girl, Nara. I have no quarrel with you. Just give me the Hyuuga and you're free to go."

"Who's there?" Shikamaru asked, squinting into the fading light from the dwindling paper bombs as he knelt beside his friend. He had to stall whoever was behind this long enough to figure out a plan. Or to at least wait until the village patrol made it over to the Uchiha side of the Leaf. That light must have been seen throughout all Konoha. Whoever set the trap certainly didn't mind the entire village knowing about it when it went off.

"Just shut up and get out of the way," the impatient voice belonged to a red-haired woman stepping into view. By the now-fading light he could see that she was adjusting her glasses. Karin.

She laughed and bent over him. "Poor pretty little Hinata's coming with me. She has something I want. Don't get in my way."

"Shikamaru - who is it ? What's going on?" Hinata asked.

"Karin," he replied as much to answer Hinata's question as to address the woman in front of him. He fairly spat the name out. He should have followed up on his hunch about her, should have pressed Ino for more information about her background when he had the chance this evening. "What do you want with Hinata?"

"Like I said, shadow-boy, she has something I want. And we all know what that is, don't we? She's coming with me and you're in no position to stop me. Some protector you are, what good are you at night? You're as weak at night as she is right now. So don't interfere and we'll be out of your way in no time."

To an extent Karin was right. He did need the sharp contrasts between daylight and solid objects in order to produce the sharper shadows that were easier to control with Kagemane. There were plenty of shadows all around at night but they were diffuse, running into one another. Moonlight was not nearly as effective as sunlight for performing his jutsu. However, he hadn't come completely unprepared.

"Don't look," he hissed at Hinata.

"Move!" Karin kicked toward him.

Shikamaru set off one of his own hi-luminosity bombs catching Karin off guard. He grabbed her foot in mid-swing toppling her to the ground. Disoriented and temporarily flash-blinded she still wasn't physically incapacitated as Hinata had been by the overwhelming display earlier. She rolled away from his attack but was unprepared when he caught one wrist with the Kagemane halting her.

Karin was quick though jerking her arm back while he still had the Kagemene engaged pulling him off balance as well. As they struggled together both shinobi had kunai drawn. Shikamaru felt his graze her side but winced in pain as he felt hers slice into his upper thigh. Blood-soaked they each sought advantage over the other. Hinata felt blindly around for a weapon she could use herself in case the unthinkable should happen to Shikamaru. Where was the village guard? Surely Konoha had seen the blast!

With relief she heard two heavy sets of feet hit the landing of the porch. Ninja were usually silent unless they were in a hurry and not needing to worry about being discovered. The village guard had arrived!

"Karin, you bitch. What the hell are you up to?" A gruff voice rumbled behind her.

That voice! Hinata thought she recognized it but it couldn't be.

Karin dropped her kunai and scrambled backwards. Shikamaru groaned on the ground realizing his wound was far more severe than he had initially thought. Blood pour out of his leg. She must have nicked his femoral artery.

"Sasuke!" Karin gasped. "Sasuke you got my message. She's here. She's right here. We can take her and..."

Sasuke looked at the pathetic woman in front of him in disgust. He once had considered _this_ a teammate?

"Sasuke, she's going to have a baby, _your_ baby, _our_ baby. Once the baby gets here we won't need her anymore we can..."

Hinata gasped. How had anyone known but her innermost circle of friends?

However, still groaning on the ground as his life seeped out from him the pieces started to fall into place for Shikamaru. What was it Ino had said - Orochimaru being a monster? Had he altered..._damaged_ Karin so that she couldn't have children of her own? And once the genetic material was recovered...once _Karin_ herself led them to it... had she_ planted_ the idea into the mind of the council with her own goal in sight? To provide Sasuke with the greatest chance of having a child that would inherit the Sharingan? To..._use_ Hinata to further her own goal of having a child vicariously with Sasuke?

Shikamaru struggled to hold onto consciousness. He was disabled, Hinata was disabled. Where were the guards, the nightly patrol? Grimly he realized that Sasuke may have already taken them out. They were alone. He and Hinata were alone and he had been outwitted by a pathetic lovelorn kunoichi who had manipulated everyone around her. She had manipulated the council over its past sins and she had manipulated Hinata's basic insecurities. And he himself had taken her for granted. Gah. Women were the worst trouble in the world. But even as the last glimmers of wakefulness faded from him he was haunted by one particular pair of female eyes.

"Sasuke, take her, take me, we can both come with you. When she has the baby it will be _our_ baby, you'll see. You won't need her then. I'll be its mother and..."

"Shut _up_!" Sasuke slapped her so hard she sprawled on her back. He loomed over her menacingly and muttered, "You disgust me. This whole_ business_ disgusts me. Get out of my sight!"

Stupidly Karin looked up at him from where she now knelt in the dirt at his feet. "Please, Sasuke," she circled her arms about his legs and looked up at him. "Oh, please, Sasuke, don't you see, we can be together..forever...we can be a family just like..."

"I told you to shut up!" he peeled her off and tossed her aside. "You don't know anything about family. About my family. I don't ever want to to see you again."

Stunned, Karin sat sprawled in the ground looking up at him. "Sasuke..." she pleaded.

"Go! Utter one more word and you're dead," he commanded.

And Karin scampered away like a rat in the night. He just needed time, she rationalized to herself. He just needed time to realize that _they_ could be the perfect family, Sasuke, her and the baby. They only needed Hinata for a little while. Once the baby got here they could get rid of her. There would be plenty of time. The baby wouldn't be here for nine more months.

The air around her was suddenly quiet. Hinata sat huddled in a corner. Shikamaru? What had happened to Shikamaru? She whispered out his name.

"Bring him!" Sasuke ordered Seito. No one else knew they were here. He didn't feel like out and out murdering Nara in cold blood. But if he left him here to die there was a chance that the village idiots would find him in time to save him. Then Nara would tell them that he and Seito had been here as well as Karin. If he brought both Shikamaru and Hinata with him, it would look like Karin was responsible for it all. Especially when she turned up missing tomorrow.

Large hands grabbed Hinata roughly by her shoulders but they were not nearly as gentle as Shikamaru's had been earlier. She was yanked up to a standing position, unable to support herself on her own two feet she sagged limply into Sasuke's arms.

"On your feet, you little Hyuuga whore! You're coming with me!"


	10. Injuries, Infection and Imprisonment

**Injuries, Infection and Imprisonment**

Hinata rose from the cot on which she had been lying and gingerly sat up. It was a supreme effort, every muscle ached, her entire chakra network had suffered a devastating overload from Karin's blast. Neuro-receptors had been flooded with acetylcholine and were now sluggish to respond making her joints feel heavy and lethargic.

She opened her eyes.

Nothing.

Was the room simply pitch dark or...? Darker thoughts flickered through her mind. Frightened, she tried to activate her jutsu, whispering its name,_ "Byakuugan."_

Nothing.

She shivered in the chill, dank air. The place smelled damp and musty, it must have sat still and undisturbed for ages. Where was she?

Heavy steps this time approached as if down a long hall and she tensed herself on the cot waiting for her abductor's entry. There was a scraping sound and a groaning of rusty hinges as a massive door slid open.

"You're awake," his voice was flat and noncommittal. "It's been a day and a half," he continued answering her unasked question even as the words formed on her lips.

"Where...am I?" she asked.

"With me," another neutral response that told her absolutely nothing. He noted that she would turn her head as if to incline her ear to his voice but her eyes kept looking straight ahead not focusing on him. "Can you see?"

"I...," she hesitated not wanting to admit it but then realized there was nothing to be gained by doing so. "No." Hinata realized that with his question he had answered another one of her own. There _must_ be light in the room if he expected her to see and yet she could not. She wasn't just in darkness without benefit of Byakuugan, she was without normal sight as well._ Blind._

"I thought so." Again his voice remained indifferent, resigned, none of the fury she had heard earlier in their confrontation with Karin. Another sound, heavy and dragging as he drew a chair across the room. She heard him settle into it beside her.

"Close your eyes. This will help," he said as he tied a cloth, cool and wet around her lidded eyes, covering them. There was a faint scent of spearmint and something else medicinal to it. "It's soothing not healing. Keep that in mind. Recovery will take time._ If_ it comes. I'll send Seito in with food shortly."

She heard him rise from the chair as if to leave. "Sasuke?" she spoke his name for the first time and heard his steps pause, wondering if he turned to her or kept his back to her. A million questions tumbled through her mind but there was one that she couldn't suppress, "Sasuke, where's Shikamaru?" After the initial query others tumbled out. "Where's Karin? What happened?"

"Karin is gone. I'll deal with her later. Nara is here but he's still unconscious."

The mention of Shikamaru's loss of consciousness frightened her. "What happened to him?"

"He's wounded."

"But... how? will he recover?

"That remains to be seen." The coldness in his dispassionate voice now seemed even worse than his white hot anger back in Konoha.

"But, why bring him here?" Her voice was frantic and confused. "If you'd left him in Konoha then Tsunade or Sakura-chan..."

Sasuke raised a hand as if to cut her off but realized it was unnecessary since she couldn't see it anyway. Still his clipped tone silenced her just as effectively. "Only you and Nara saw that I was in Konoha. By bringing him here, that still remains true. In any battle or conflict, information is power. Nara would tell you as much himself. If he could."

With that he turned and left the room, closing the door soundly behind him. Not that there was any need to worry she would try to escape. How could she even see which way to go?

Left alone with her thoughts in the impenetrable darkness, Hinata shrank in upon herself. Her fingers bunched together the tattered blanket that had covered her while she slept. Plucking it up she wrapped it around her body for comfort as much as for warmth.

What had she gotten them into?

* * *

Groggily, Shikamaru came to, aware that he was in a rough-hewn room of stone, lying on a cot with a searing pain in his right leg. Struggling to sit up he eventually acceded to the pain, admitting defeat and lying quite still back against the narrow bed.

He cast his thoughts back, able to clearly remember the fight with Karin, remember the slicing blow she'd struck against him. After that things became hazy. He recalled the pain, kunai biting through his leg sharp and clean and the subsequent weakness as blood drained out of him. A voice distant and vaguely familiar sounded in his memory.

Sasuke Uchiha. It didn't seem possible and Shikamaru tried to dismiss it as a delusion caused by the pain. But Sasuke remained stubbornly in his awareness. It was starting to come back to him now. He recalled Sasuke giving the order to bring him, had memories of Naruto's friend and nemesis holding Hinata at his side as they sped along through treetops, feet dancing swiftly from branch to branch.

Shikamaru tried in vain to retrace their route in his mind. There were fleeting images of landmarks he thought he recognized but they were disjointed, incongruent as he had faded in and out of consciousness during their travels. He would never be able to reconstruct the exact path they had taken to get here.

Looking around the room, the cell he corrected himself, that he was in he realized he would not be seeing any visible landmarks from the windows either. There were none.

Locked in a cell he was unable to assess his location any further. He decided to attempt to determine the extent of his injury. Carefully he slid one hand down his thigh, easing over to the inner portion where the pain radiated outward. Ragged edges of cloth passed under his fingers. Apparently he was still wearing the same clothes, the leg of the trousers had just been cut away.

His entire leg felt swollen. The pain increased simply as he brushed his fingertips closer to the center where the skin felt hot - angry and inflamed.

Not good.

Managing to prop himself up on his elbows, biting back curses against the fresh waves of pain his motion set off he looked down at his wounded limb. A jagged laceration started jarringly close to his groin and ran several inches down his thigh. It wasn't the length of the gash that concerned him though, as much as the depth of the entry point. Gah - had she literally cut him to the bone? It felt like it.

If Sakura were here she could fix this in a jiffy. Or Tsunade. Even Ino had become quite adept with her healing jutsus after training with those two. But the last he'd seen of Sakura had been some time before the explosion Karin had triggered. His pink-haired friend had probably been back at her apartment in Konoha or else out to dinner with their friends at the time this all occurred.

Keys jingling outside his cell door caught his attention. He tried once more to sit on the cot and managed to get into somewhat of an upright position but the effort left him exhausted. Eyes trained on the door he half expected to see Sasuke when it opened and half hoped it was Hinata. It turned out to be neither of those two.

A slim young shinobi that he did not recognize appeared carrying a tray of simple foods, soup, some grilled fish, a little rice and tea. Setting the tray down at the foot of the bed the young man surveyed his captive. Shikamaru sized him up as well. Not that he was in any position to challenge the man, but he felt it was still always good to try to determine what you were up against.

"Can you eat?" the shinobi asked as he set the tray down at the foot of the cot, always careful to keep an eye on Shikamaru, immobile though he appeared to be.

Shikmaru nodded. "Thanks," he said, reaching for the soup first. The weight of the simple ceramic bowl seemed far heavier than it should but he managed to lift it to his lips, cupping it in both hands to take a sip. "Where's Sasuke?"

The question caught the man off-guard, to hear his leader referred to so casually. He stiffened, "If Sasuke-sama wishes to see you, he'll send for you." He turned to leave.

Shikamaru thought to himself that if Sasuke sent for him, it would be a very cold day before he got there because he certainly wasn't moving very far in the condition he was in. More than food he wished the young man had brought a medical nin with him or at least a first aid kit with some antiseptic and antibiotic.

At least as the door closed behind him Shikamaru caught a glimpse of the young man picking up a second tray of food.

Was Hinata imprisoned close by?

* * *

Sasuke paced in the small area feeling confined in more ways than just the three dimensions that determined the space of the room he was in. The loss of the original members of Team Hebi had been unsettling enough. Now to have Karin re-intrude upon his life in any way at all after such a prolonged absence would have been unnerving in its own right.

But this? This was unthinkable.

It had seemed like some bizarre joke at first. He had only ventured to Konoha because her message had sent a shock through his system, a jolt of reality that the physical _production_ of a Uchiha heir was indeed a possibility.

And the memory of how such a thing came to be possible dredged up long buried demons from his subconscious - vile memories of Orochimaru that left him feeling trapped, breathless and unclean. The man had used him, _abused_ him and he had _allowed_ it to happen.

There were samples the snake sannin had taken, blood and tissue, and others that he had required Sasuke to _provide._ Shame and humiliation battled with rage for supremacy of his emotions at the moment as he remembered those sessions. Blindly he lashed out at something, anything in his frustration. His fist collided with one of the stone walls. Fortunately he had not chakra-infused the blow so the wall suffered no damage and only his knuckles were skinned and bruised.

Rubbing his injured fist with his other hand, having at least released some of his pent up frustration he tried to collect his thoughts and consider what he should do with his two prisoners.

Shikamaru Nara and Hinata Hyuuga. Two of his old friends from his Academy days were now imprisoned by his command. He had brought them to this remote location rather than to his current base of operations.

Seito's jutsu had seemed to prove effective - Karin had been surprised by his appearance - she had intended to lure him with her message but hadn't expected his response to be so swift. More importantly she did not appear to have even detected his presence until he had interfered with her plan to incapacitate and kidnap Hinata.

So Sasuke had chosen this location on a whim as he and Seito were traveling back with the two in tow. It was a series of caves in a mountain range midway between Konoha and his base. The caves had been home to Seito's clan before the majority of them had been defeated and dispersed in the Third Shinobi War. Seito had told him that the crystalline structure that formed the walls of the cave had been integral in molding his clan's chakra and developing their jutsu. The crystals generated a natural impedence for most chakra frequencies. Seito's clan, having developed in the shelter of the mountains had honed their skills in using that impedence to master the chakra-masking jutsu that could shield them so well. It had obviously been effective at deterring Karin this time.

When they had sped away from Konoha two days ago Sasuke had fully intended to take Hinata back to his base. But that presented its own set of problems - namely too many questions from curious underlings. He preferred to contain the damage of this scandal and to limit the number of people who had any idea why he had kidnapped the Hyuuga heiress.

That number was currently limited to one, probably two. He had not even revealed to Seito precisely why it was important they capture Hinata. But he suspected Shikamaru knew damn well what was going on.

There was the possibility he had acted in haste, he mused. Had his rage at discovering the truth of the preservation of his genetic samples clouded his judgment and had he been too quick to take Hinata? Perhaps she only_ intended_ to proceed with this abominable plan but had not yet started on it.

Grimly he realized there was clear evidence to refute that theory.

Karin had been there that night with the intention of taking Hinata claiming she had something she wanted. She would have only done so if she had _known_ there was something for her to take.

_His_ child.

A _Uchiha_ child.

And Karin would know. She would have sensed the presence of a new chakra signature.

Hinata Hyuuga what have you done?


	11. Confidants and Confrontation

**Confidants and Confrontation**

Tsunade looked at the man she trusted more than any other in the entire village of Konoha - Shikaku Nara. He was her oldest friend in the village, the first one to welcome her back as Hokage, and her most trusted right-hand man serving as her Jounin Commander. And now she had to tell him his son was missing, most likely due to a mission he had no idea Shikamaru had been assigned.

"The area has been secured by ANBU. The story we're putting out on the street is that the explosion was due to a corroded gas line due to years of unuse in the Uchiha compound," he told his Hokage as he gazed at her with dark unflinching eyes. "Now, would you mind telling me what's really going on?"

Tsunade sighed. "The total damage to the village, is it limited to the one house in the Uchiha quarter, the two perimeter guards on that side of the village and the one medical lab?"

Shikaku nodded, turning his tea cup carefully before lifting it to his lips to sip. "That's all we know so far. Two unconscious guards and three missing shinobi. My son, Karin and Hinata Hyuuga."

"The lab we're explaining as an equipment malfunction in a cryo-unit," Tsunade outlined her own actions to date at the medical center to him. "Drastic temperature changes caused the explosion, at least that's what we're saying."

"Good job," Shikaku commented on her cover story then added more solemnly, "There's evidence of a battle at the Uchiha house, a lot of blood."

"We're having it tested, Shikaku. You'll know the results as soon as I do," she reassured him gently. "Now, as to what's really going on..." Tsunade reached into her desk drawer and pulled out a bottle of sake. "I think we're going to need something a little bit stronger than tea."

She poured two saucers of sake carefully and raised hers to him as they both took a sip. "Shikamaru was on a special assignment, in addition to his regular duties. One that required a very high level of, shall we say, discretion?"

"Go on," Shikaku said, pouring the sake himself. Tsunade smiled, he was one of the few people comfortable enough around her to help himself to her sake.

"It has to do with Uchiha..." she started.

"That seems pretty evident," he replied and gave her a half-grin. If it wasn't his son's life they were talking about he would enjoy seeing Tsunade so flustered.

Tsunade sighed and just dove right in, explaining the whole scenario to him. Shikaku, to his credit, simply sat there and absorbed it all.

"Hmmm..., Yoshino's going to be disappointed. She'd gotten her hopes up that he was spending time with Hinata for a_ reason._.."

"I'm sorry you weren't in on this, Shikaku, but to a large degree medical privacy rules prevented me from letting anyone except those directly involved and those whom Hinata chose to tell know anything about this.

"And the lab that was destroyed...?"

"All that was destroyed were the remaining samples recovered from various locations Orochimaru had used."

Shikaku stroked his goatee and tried to piece together the information he had just received.

"Any hunches as to who might have done this?" Tsunade prodded.

"Karin certainly comes to mind." Shikaku answered. "And Sasuke himself."

"Honestly, you don't really believe he could have swept in here undetected do you?"

"I believe Itachi 'swept in here undetected' once did he not? And would have swept out undetected as well if it weren't for Kakashi?"

Tsunade grudgingly agreed.

Shikaku refilled his sake. "Or it could have been someone from Hyuuga. Who there knows?"

"Only Hiashi and a couple of other very high level Main House members.

"Karin, Shikamaru and Hinata. All three missing," the elder Nara mused. "Who knows those are the ones missing?"

"Right now? The ANBU on the scene, me, you, Shizune, Sakura, and Kurenai, I think. Who would have taken them?"

"You assume they were taken. Perhaps Shikamaru detected a threat and he has Hinata in hiding. I wouldn't put it past him to do something like that - stage what looks like an abduction if he thought it would be safer to get her out of the village, throw whoever off her trail. Still, I would have expected to have heard from him by now. For now I want to limit the number of people who know they're missing. Make up a mission and assign all three to it. Come up with a reason for them to be suddenly sent out of the village on this mission."

"Sure, I can come up with something. But why?"

"Given the circumstances, if people know who's missing they're going to start wondering _why_ those particular people are missing. I'd rather keep that as quiet as possible right now."

"Lady Tsunade," Shizune bowed from the dooryway as Tsunade acknowledged her and motioned her in. "The lab results are in."

The dark haired kunoichi turned and looked at Shikaku. "I'm sorry, Commander Nara sir, but most of the blood is Shikamaru's. The other is from Karin."

Shizune left the folder on Tsunade's desk and then bowed politely and left. After a few seconds of silence, Shikaku finally spoke. "Then I think it's safe to assume they were taken. I don't think he would stage spilling that much blood. Tsunade, I need a few things from you."

"Anything."

"Make every effort to keep this quiet. I don't want anyone else to know except Kurenai's original team members. Inuzuka and Aburame, right?"

"Yes."

"Send them to me as quick as you can."

"They're on a mission but due back in today. I'll have them report to you as soon as they get here. They're both excellent at tracking."

"Yes. Well, even Ino-Shika-Cho may still have a few tricks up their sleeve in that department, you know."

Tsunade arched an eyebrow skyward quizzically. "Anything else?"

"Yes. One more thing. Whatever you do, make sure my wife doesn't find out."

* * *

Hinata tried to remain calm sitting on the simple cot that was her resting place in this prison. Still unsighted, she had recently ventured to pace out the room keeping one hand on the rough hewn stone walls and stepping carefully to avoid any other furnishings that may have been in there. The ache in her muscles had started to subside and she gingerly tried to stretch them out as she walked. The room was small, by her steps she had measured perhaps four meters to a side and it was roughly rectangular although it was slightly wider than deeper.

There was one door and aside from her bed there was only a simple table and chair. A young man had brought her food earlier and had guided her to the table where her tray was placed, three steps from the foot of her cot. There may have been other items in the center of the room but she didn't feel like venturing further than an arm's reach from the wall or one of the known items.

After the initial shock over her loss of sight had subsided she tried to more calmly and methodically assess her situation. Hinata wasn't afraid of the blindness itself, trying to reassure itself it would be temporary, but rather she was just more cautious. She had to admit she was disoriented. Still she had her other senses and Kurenai-sensei had encouraged her team to cross-train over the years. Although nowhere near as sharp as Kiba's still her hearing picked up the faint deep voices of men down the hall. She only got a brief snippet of conversation but thought she recognized Shikamaru's voice as one of them.

Shikamaru! Sasuke had said he was unconscious, unable to see her. But she was certain it was his voice, so he had at last awakened.

The door started to creak open and the young man, Seito announced himself. "I've brought your lunch. I see you're up now. Do you need help getting to the table?"

"No," Hinata answered him, hardly able to contain herself, wanting to speak to Shikamaru so badly. "Is Nara-san here as well, the shinobi from the Leaf who was with me?"

Seito paused before answering but saw that no harm could come from it. "He is, in the cell across and down the hall from yours."

"May I visit him?"

"That's not for me to decide. Here. Eat." Although not rude, Seito was unsure of the status of these two prisoners and that made him nervous. He knew they were of the hated Leaf village but was also aware that they must have been his lord's previous companions, possibly even his friends at one point. It was all very puzzling. "Do you require anything else?"

Other than her freedom and to see her companion, what Hinata most wanted was a bath and a change of clothes. However, she certainly wasn't mentioning that to this young man. "No, thank you." She replied as she edged toward the table, feeling for the chair before sitting down.

She heard the door close behind Seito and counted his footsteps as they faded away down the hall. Quickly rising from the chair, she hurried as best she could reaching in front of her until she felt the door beneath her fingers.

"Shikamaru!" she called out her friend's name, then more loudly a second time, "Shikamaru! Are you okay?"

"Hinata?" came the reply from down the hall. The voice was faint and muffled, the stone walls and heavy doors doing more than enough to dampen the sound. There was a pause before he continued. "Well, I've been better. How about you?" His self-deprecating chuckle sounded weak and fake.

Hinata pursed her lips and thought before she answered. She didn't want to alarm her friend more than was necessary especially since he was the one who was more severely injured than she, at least according to Sasuke. However, Shikamaru functioned best when he had the most complete and accurate information. She answered truthfully. "I am uninjured but...it seems that the flash temporarily blinded me."

"Yeah," he answered back, "I wondered about that."

Hinata was beginning to worry that Shikamaru's faint replies were not due solely to the walls around them. He sounded tired and weak. She had no idea how the effort of talking alone was taxing his strength. "Your injury - how bad is it?"

"It's my upper thigh. She cut me pretty deep." He left out the fact that it was red and inflamed and undoubtedly infected.

"Have they sent you a medical ninja?"

"No, not yet. I've only seen the guy who brings the food. And you?"

"Just him. And Sasuke." She was about to tell him that he should rest when she heard footsteps down the hall again, a measured and purposeful stride.

Keys jingled and the door creaked open on its ancient hinges as Hinata took a step back away from it. Sasuke addressed her, "Hinata, come with me."

"Sasuke? Where are you taking me? Why?"

"I simply have some questions for you."

"I can answer them here," she replied defiantly. Being this close to the injured Shikamaru she had no intention of leaving him or straying any further from him than was absolutely necessary.

"I prefer this discussion occurs in private. I am sure you would, too. Obviously you and Nara are capable of hearing each other's words here."

"But I..."

"I'm okay, Hinata," Shikamaru interjected weakly from down the hall. "Go with him. Learn what you can." Unspoken between them was the fact that if Sasuke was going to harm either one of them he had already had ample opportunity.

"This way," Sasuke said, taking her firmly by her upper arm and guiding her down the hall. They ascended two flights of uneven stairs at a slow pace for Hinata's sake. He led her into an open room, she could smell the fresh air and feel a slight breeze.

"Oh," she said thankfully. "Are we outside?" The breeze was invigorating, it felt cool and clean after being in the dank cell for so long. Despite her circumstances the fresh air actually lifted her spirits the tiniest bit.

"No, but the windows are open," Sasuke answered, finding a chair and helping her settle into it. She heard him pull up one for himself as well and sit beside her.

"We're alone here," he began, "I've sent Seito to hunt for supper this evening."

"Y-y-es," was all Hinata could manage to utter, resorting to her stammer in her nervousness. Never in a million years since this project began had she expected to be sitting here, across from _Sasuke_ himself. There could only be one possible topic of discussion.

"Is it true?"

The question hung between them. Hinata's heart hammered in her chest. She realized that he must know already - what other explanation could there have been for his presence in Konoha, his _kidnapping_ of her? But to actually voice it out loud, to _admit it_ to him face to face seemed an insurmountable task at the moment. She shrank in upon herself, thinking back to the blistering rage he'd shown the night he'd taken her. Hinata realized that the Sasuke across from her was a complete stranger. She had no idea how he would react now.

"Hinata," he repeated, "is it true?"

Her mouth was dry and her throat constricted but she managed to swallow hard before answering. "Yes," she said simply.

Sasuke pushed the chair back quickly as he stood up and whirled away from her, walking to the open windowsill and gripping it tightly looking out over the mountains in lilac-blue early evening. His knuckles were white, even the scuffed ones from his earlier punch against the stone wall. He forced himself to take three deep breaths, Hinata could hear his long shuddering exhales as he tried to compose himself before going any further with the conversation.

He finally turned to face her. "Why!" he demanded from across the room.

"I...," Hinata started and then stopped, but this time it was not due to a stammer. All her rationalizations from earlier escaped her now and she couldn't articulate them to him of all people. She had explained part of it to Shikamaru, the differences between Hyuuga and Nara clans and the opportunity this allowed for her to choose a different path for herself. Hanabi of all people would and did understand. But to explain any of that to Sasuke? Impossible."I...had my reasons," she answered lamely.

So quickly it took her breath away he closed the space between them, hands on the table on either side of her leaning over her. "You had no right!" he hissed.

Hinata blinked back tears, for the first time considering the _person_ of Sasuke Uchiha, not the vague threat that he posed to her home. For all her own thoughts of her controlling her own fate, what about him? She had just assumed he would never be a presence in her life at all, a non-issue. When had he, Sasuke Uchiha, the boy she had grown up with, been consulted in any of this. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

She heard him sit down heavily in the chair again, breathing out an equally heavy sigh. "Do you realize what you've done? Do you realize if news gets out of this how many people and clans will have a bounty out on you or the child when it's born? Starting with _Karin?_" He fairly spat out the name. "Even my own people might see this as an opportunity to gain an advantage over me. That's why we're here for now."

Here? Where she was safe? Hinata considered his words carefully, he was keeping them here to keep them safe? She had come to the conclusion earlier that if he had wanted her dead she would be dead by now. How_ long_ did he intend to keep them here? Before she could ask the question, Sasuke's next words made her blood run cold.

"Terminate it."

Hinata blanched, thinking back to the tiny little spark of chakra she had felt just days earlier. She'd been unable to utilize Byukugaan since the explosion and now reflexively tried to activate it but to no avail, the whispered words of the jutsu useless in her present state. "I...I won't," she gasped out to him.

"Terminate it. You have the training to interrupt your chakra network, all kunoichi do. You're early enough on so that there will be no medical complications."

A wave of fear washed over Hinata. Her chakra network - she'd felt the blast singe her synapses with her Byakugaan activated during the battle with Karin. What if something had happened already?

Tears welled in her eyes. She was too early in the pregnancy for any normal symptoms to manifest, she'd only confirmed it by use of her technique. Now that one link was unavailable to her. "It may not matter," she replied bitterly to him.

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that my chakra network has already been interrupted. The night of the blast. Byakugaan was activated. Not only am I blind and without Byakugaan, I can't infuse chakra at all."

Sasuke sat back looking at her. He could see the tears threatening to spill over in her lavender eyes. This was...unexpected. He carefully considered their position and the availability of supplies, food, game and water. They were fairly well situated and could easily stay her for several weeks. Enough time to see if her chakra network would repair itself or at least to wait things out to find out if she was pregnant the old fashioned way.

They would wait. If she experienced menses then the pregnancy had already ended. If not and if her chakra network did not repair itself, or if she still refused to cooperate then grimly he realized he'd learned enough from Orochiimaru to know how to disrupt the chakra flow of a pregnant kunoichi himself. He said as much to Hinata.

She looked at him in horrified disbelief. "What did that monster with delusions of godhood do to you to be able to turn_ you_ into a such a monster?"

"It would seem to me," he said curtly as he rose from the chair, "That we wouldn't be in this situation if you hadn't decided to play god yourself with someone else's DNA."


	12. Searchers

**Searchers**

Shikaku looked up from the stack of papers he'd been studying and cast his gaze over to the second stack he had yet to tackle. "This is everything you have on her?" he asked Tsunade.

The golden-haired Hokage of Konoha nodded, "Everything since she came to us. Mission records and reports, assignments, performance reviews and even medical. Of course we don't have any information about her prior to her joining the Leaf except that…"

"Except that she was with Orochimaru for an extended period of time," Shikaku finished for her. It pained her to even mention her former teammate's name so he spared her the effort. But mention of the snake-sannin caused him to return his attention to the medical forms he had just finished perusing.

"And he sterilized her?" he asked bluntly.

Tsunade pursed her lips and thought long and hard before answering. "I don't think that's what he set out to do, but the net effect of the multiple procedures that were performed on her," she paused and cleared her throat before continuing. "Yes. It's my medical opinion she'll never carry a child to term."

"Hyper-ovulation?" he queried, unfamiliar with the term that was before him in the report.

Tsunade found it hard to answer. She had initially felt sorry for the girl whom she and Shizune had been trying to help at the medical clinic. She sighed and began to explain, her voice slipping into a neutral, clinical tone, which helped her maintain her emotional detachment from the situation at hand.

"It's possible, with the right hormonal treatments, to cause a female to produce more than one receptive ovum at a time and then… extract them. We have no records of the exact type or number of treatments Orochimaru performed but her complete endocrine system was wrecked. She was seeking treatment from us for amenorrhea, complete cessation of her menstrual cycle. Not pregnancy, not early on-set menopause, but an abrupt cessation of the normal cycle. I've seen a few cases before. One of the first things you have to do is to rule out pregnancy before you can begin any course of treatment because if she is then any hormones you administer to attempt to restart the cycle could…would trigger a spontaneous abortion."

Shikaku looked at the thick manila files in front of him containing Karin's medical history in Konoha. "She'd been coming to you for quite a while, then?"

"Yes. She started not long after she first came to Konoha."

"And every time you want to try a new treatment or adjust an existing one…?"

"You have to reconfirm she's not pregnant. Month after month. Even though I told her the prospects were not good she refused to give up. That must be hard on a young kunoichi to have that reconfirmed, thrown up in your face over and over again. I suppose it could drive someone to do something desperate. But what does Karin's medical history have to do with Hinata and Shikamaru's disappearance?"

"She was the one who led our recovery teams to Orochimaru's bases wasn't she?" Shikaku queried.

"Yes. There were some of the bases that Ame and Suna got to before we did. But she did lead our teams to over twenty locations of varying size. Most had medical specimens stored there, some more than others." Tsunade replied then added.

"Look, Shikaku, I understand what you're getting at, but how would she have known about Hinata's involvement in all this? Those meetings were strictly on a need to know basis and I'd trust with my life the integrity of each person there. Prick though he is, I'd even trust Hiashi Hyuuga not to breathe a word of it to anyone, much less anyone non-Hyuuga. So how did she find out?"

Shikaku smiled at her dig against the head of the Hyuuga clan. One thing he had always admired about Tsunade was that she called them as she saw them. He had to agree with her assessment of Hiashi, too. He was a prick and a conceited one, at that. The last thing he would want to do is spread the word about his daughter's involvement in this little plan.

Shikaku mused thoughtfully. "Maybe she didn't find out."

"What?" Tsunade looked confused. Shikaku Nara wasn't prone to stating things that did not make sense.

"Maybe she didn't find out. May she planned it all along."

"Are you saying she orchestrated this?"

"Perhaps orchestrated isn't exactly the right word, maybe it was more like 'manipulated.' Who initially broached the subject with you?"

"Koharu, why?"

"Just a minute," the bearded jonin commander flipped through a couple of the mission reports. "Here it is," he said pulling a report from a folder. "About a year ago she was staffed to Koharu's office for filing and organizational work."

"That's right, she was helping to organize some historical files from the time of Sarutobi's term as Hokage." Tsunade snapped her fingers as she recalled making the assignment herself.

"So, a lonely old woman carrying a large burden of guilt shares that history with Karin. And Karin, realizing their may be a way to solve her own problem manipulates her into thinking there's a way to atone for her past sins. Karin wouldn't need to 'find out' anything - she could just wait for Koharu to act after planting the suggestion." Shikaku concluded.

Tsunade nodded. "That's as good a theory as any for the questions of who and how and why. But it doesn't get us much closer to the where-are-they-now answer."

"Maybe, maybe not," Shikaku muttered now turning to the map beside him that highlighted the locations the recovery teams had investigated. "I'm going to take this with me," he announced, rolling the map up and inserting it into a cardboard tube for transportation. "And go over it with Inoichi and some of the trackers and see if we can come up with some leads."

As he left the Hokage's office a couple of stray items nagged at Shikaku. The first was - how had Karin managed to abduct not one but two well trained shinobi from the Leaf. Either she had had help or else she had dumped one body and only abducted a single ninja. Running that thought out to its conclusion seemed to cause the bottom to drop out of his stomach, since the only shinobi she needed was Hinata and he quickly shoved that thought aside.

The second item that he made a mental note to do was to order Inoichi and Ibiki to immediately perform updated psychological profiles on all the Leaf shinobi.

* * *

Hinata sat still in the chair where Sasuke had left her, his words still ringing in her ears. The fresh air that had earlier seemed so cool and invigorating now turned cold and threatening. His words had cut her deeply, not only the fear triggered by his threat but also the truth in his accusation.

When had she ever considered him at all? Didn't he deserve at least that, simple consideration and a voice in the matter?

But still, his…demand couldn't be the solution.

And what trouble had she already caused her friend, Shikamaru? He lay wounded who knew how badly in a cell close to hers and it was ultimately because of her actions.

She was left a long time with her thoughts. Hinata could feel the air cool even more as the sun set and hear the chirp of birds give way to the crickets of the early evening. As a trained shinobi she realized she could have most likely found her way back to her cell, keeping close to the wall to guide her. There had been only a few turns along the way and she was certain she could navigate the stairs by herself after all it had only been two flights. Left alone, however, the young woman realized that she really hadn't anywhere to go at the moment, even if she made her way "back" it would only be back to the cell.

Eventually Seito returned and announced himself. "Miss?" he addressed her neutrally still puzzled by the arrangement here. "Miss, I am to take you back to your…room."

"Yes," Hinata replied dully. "Of course."

He assisted her up and guided her back then returned with cool bandages for her eyes dipped in the same soothing mixture Sasuke provided earlier. The scent of spearmint once again permeated the air.

After he left, Hinata lay back on her cot fighting back the tears which occasionally slipped beneath the cloth to trickle down her cheeks. She finally she lost that battle and turned her face into the pillow and sobbed quietly in earnest as the weight of the full situation came crashing down on her. She finally fell into a troubled sleep.

Shikamaru had been sleeping fitfully himself. Even though it was only early evening he had nothing else to do during his confinement and no strength to do it with anyway. Though his sleep was light he was still jarred awake by a voice.

"Nara. Get up. I need your assistance with something," Sasuke announced firmly in the manner of one who was used to being instantly obeyed.

Blearily Shikamaru cracked one eye open. "What is it?"

"This," Sasuke announced unfurling a map over the small table in Shikamaru's cell. I need your analysis about Karin's most likely locations."

"And just why should I help you?" Shikamaru asked still lying on his back not wasting any energy trying to get up in what he suspected would be a vain attempt.

Sasuke crossed the room over to him and jerked him up into a sitting position on the bed. Shikamaru inhaled sharply as the pain overwhelmed him, fighting back waves of nausea.

"I would suggest you do as I say," Sasuke muttered.

"Or what?" Shikamaru responded weakly gripping the edges of the bed to keep from pitching forward off of it.

Sasuke glared at him, unable to respond then turned and walked back to the table, studying the map with his back to the Nara shinobi. "I should kill you for your insolence," Sasuke muttered.

Shikamaru sat there as the pain subsided slightly and considered Sasuke's demeanor toward him. He'd had some time to think about the situation here. "But you won't," he stated flatly.

Shikamaru saw Sasuke's shoulders stiffen as he replied, "Don't test me, Nara," he threatened.

"You won't kill me because you would have done it already," Shikamaru stated as much to annoy Sasuke as to reassure himself. Sasuke might be a lot of things, but Shikamaru was fairly certain he wasn't a cold-blooded murder. It was Karin who had been responsible for his injury and Hinata's disability. All Sasuke had done so far had been to take them with him when he left Konoha. Hardly the act of someone bent on killing them when he would have had ample opportunity to do so and dispose of the bodies on the way out of the Leaf village.

At that moment the tension between the two of them was tangible. With his eyes narrowed to slits against the pain, Shikamaru still managed to study Sasuke. It was obvious he had struck a nerve with his former friend with his simple statement of fact.

For his part, Sasuke found Shikamaru more than irritating. Actually he found having two prisoners who were so…troublesome doubly irritating. There had never been so much insubordination around Orochimaru. Then again, he reasoned, Orochimaru rarely took prisoners, but rather surrounded himself with subjects and sycophants. Silently he chided himself for comparing any aspect of himself with Orochimaru. The man had merely been a step on his path, a tool he had used to gain the power he needed, nothing more.

"Let us just say then, that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I think you and I can both agree that Karin is our mutual enemy."

Shikamara sighed heavily, "Agreed."

"Then assist me with this."

"No."

"You still say no?" Sasuke questioned his voice low but his tone lethal as he turned to face him.

"Not unless I see Hinata, see for myself she's unhurt from Karin's attack."

"You know, Nara, there are other things I can do besides death that would make your remaining time here miserable."

Shikamaru grimaced and motioned at his leg. "At this point doing nothing is torture itself."

Sasuke looked at his former friend's wound and was startled to see the angry red color surrounding the gash itself. After applying a hasty pressure bandage at the site to staunch the worst of the bleeding before fleeing Konoha he had assigned Seito to treat it when they first arrived here. The boy was a marginally better medical ninja than he himself was although neither of them were very talented in that area, not like a Kabuto or a Tsunade. Seito would have done his best, Sasuke was sure of that but the looks of this worried him as it might exceed both their skills.

Trying to reel himself back from such weak thoughts he countered, "You're not the only one who can be made to suffer."

Pressing his advantage, Shikamaru replied, "Hinata? You won't hurt her either. We both know she's pregnant and we both know it's a Uchiha child."

"If you think I'm swayed by dewy-eyed nonsense about motherhood then spare us both the sentimentalities," Sasuke huffed in disgust.

"That's actually not my point at all," Shikamaru said. "If you do anything to harm her or her child then do you know who will go down in the history books as killing the last Uchiha?" He waited for the impact of his question to sink in then delivered his verbal jab with precision accuracy. "It will be Sasuke Uchiha. And how would that make you any different than the village itself that you claim to despise?"

Thin-lipped and angry, Sasuke stared at him before abruptly turning to leave, the map left forgotten on the table.

As he watched his old friend walk away, Shikamaru realized that though Sasuke may have fashioned himself as somewhat of Orochimaru's student in his quest for power the reality was he was very little like the man. Inside, the Sasuke Uchiha that he remembered, the one Tsunade had sent him to retrieve on that first disastrous mission didn't have the same heart of darkness that Orochimaru had possessed.


	13. Sight

**Sight**

Ino zipped her flak vest up a little higher against the cool morning air. Late summer but already the first hint of fall was in the air with temperatures dropping pleasantly at night and fog accompanying each morning. She surveyed the valley below her, tendrils of mist curling up through the dark of evergreen trees and yellow-tinged leafy ones.

_Shikamaru_, she thought to herself her icy blue eyes trying to pierce through the trees and fog ahead, _where are you?_

She had been on this mission for over a week now, searching for Shikamaru and Hinata. Ino recalled the meeting in which Tsunade-sama and Commander Nara had delivered the devastating news. Due to the sensitive nature of their disappearance, Nara and Hyuuga would be listed on a published mission as out of the village. Chouji was still out of Konoha on his own duties but Ino, Kiba and Shino were to be assembled into a top secret tracking unit sent to try to locate the missing pair. The three had wholeheartedly agreed to work together expending their best efforts to find them and bring them home safely. Little did they realized how hard working together would be.

Ino found herself a whorl of conflicting emotions about the whole affair. Part of her felt…_hurt_ to have been left out of the initial discussions surrounding Hinata's plan. That Shikamaru had been so intimately involved in those plans made it doubly hard for her as well. Ino was shinobi enough to understand the need for compartmentalized information and medical ninja enough to know the highest requirements for privacy surrounding all medical information. But still, she would admit it if only to herself, it _hurt _that her two best friends, Shikamaru and Sakura had both known and she had not.

She had worked with Kiba and Shino separately before on occasion but never with the two of them together. It was odd, assembling a team out of the broken bits of the two with the missing shinobi. The dynamics were off. There was a level of trust among the Ino-Shika-Cho trio that she would match up against any other team any day. They functioned as a single unit effortlessly and worked exceptionally well together, knew each other's quirks and personality traits and just…_fit_… for lack of a better word.

She supposed Team 8 had its own dynamics but whatever they were they were certainly different. Commander Nara had appointed Kiba mission leader and Ino totally respected that. But she was also her own outspoken and assertive kunoichi which Kiba seemed to take at every turn as a direct challenge to his authority. It was beginning to grate on all three of them.

The last thing that was making this mission more difficult for her and thus more difficult for the three of them to integrate into a well functioning team was that it was still unclear if this was a rescue mission or a recovery mission or…both.

Ino swallowed hard. They both might be missing but it was Shikamaru's blood on the ground, that much was certain. And there had been a lot of it.

It was crippling her, not knowing whether he was alive or dead. The worst thing was that it was affecting her ability to use the jutsu she knew was the best contribution she could make to the search effort. Shintenshin. She needed to be able to leave her body, take control of a bird, overfly the area to see what she could find.

And she couldn't bring herself to do it. Not with these two. Shikamaru had been catching her whenever she left her body for ten years now. "Having your back" took on a special meaning if you were Yamanaka and out of body. Your teammate had to treat your body as his own, dragging it out of battle conditions when it would be far easier to cut and run leaving your lifeless rag-doll self behind. Even though it might cut their own speed in half, the person who caught you had to be willing do whatever it took to make sure you had a body to return to. And that person, who for the last ten years had made sure she had a body to come home to might be gone forever.

Now Ino was stuck with these two. Shino did not like to touch or be touched by another human being. And then there was Kiba.

She looked over at Shino who had served the last shift of the watch and was tending a small fire. "Good morning," she said the sarcasm of fake cheeriness dripping from her voice. Shino just nodded his chin in reply. The two of them had reached a détente early on in the mission - she kept her talking to a minimum around him and they stayed out of each other's way.

Kiba on the other hand was an entirely different problem. She looked in dismay as he emerged looking unkempt and rumpled from his tent. Shikamaru and Chouji were at least…tidy teammates. Everything about Kiba irritated her.

Kiba yawned and stretched, scratched his head then his ass and mumbled, "Where's breakfast?"

Ino shot him a look of pure disgust. Patriarchical pig. What? Did he expect her to fix breakfast for him? She leaned her head back and shook the last of the trail mix into her mouth crunching noisily and crumpling the wrapper with glee. Then she reached down, plucked a pack from her bag and flung it towards him with more force than was technically necessary. In his still sleepy state it hit his chest with a thump and he fumbled with it clumsily catching it before it hit the ground.

"Hmmph, good thing it wasn't a kunai or you'd be dead by now," Ino said flipping her ponytail back over her shoulder.

"Yeah? Well good thing you're a girl ….," Kiba snorted but didn't get to finish his sentence. Ino had had enough, Shikamaru would have _never _said anything like that. In a flash she closed the gap between them and now held a kunai underneath his chin, tip pointing into the soft flesh there.

"Good thing I'm a _what_?" she hissed. "Want to find out how good of a _girl_ I am?"

"Look down," he snarled right back at her.

Ino flicked her gaze downward but really didn't need to look, she felt the tip of his own kunai poking in her belly.

"Will you two stop it?" Shino sighed in his monotone voice. "None of this false bravado is doing either of our teammates any good. I would suggest we focus our energies on actually finding them."

Ino exhaled heavily and relaxed, dropping her kunai arm and re-sheathing the weapon. "Sorry Kiba," she mumbled.

"Whatever," Kiba answered returning his own weapon to its sheath then grumbled "Sorry…that you got your panties in a wad."

Ino shot him another scathing look. "Where's the dog?"

"The dog has a name, it's Akamaru and you should know that by now!" Kiba snapped.

Upon hearing his name, Akarmaru loped from where he had been dozing behind the tents, nuzzling against Kiba's hand.

"So does he smell anything? Or does he just smell?" Ino retorted.

"I told you Ino, once they crossed water it was hard to pick up the trail. After that rain the other night the scent trail's gone totally cold."

Ino sighed. Kiba was right. Akamaru had been most helpful giving them a general direction outside of Konoha until they got to the first river crossing. They had cast about on either side of the river up and down in each direction with Akamaru re-taking the scent about one mile above their entry point. But after the rain there was nothing left for him to go on.

Shino's kikochou insects were most useful when he had an opportunity to plant one on a subject he wished to follow. Without a hivemate to seek they were comparable to Akamaru in their abilities.

Which left them with Ino. And Shintensin. She should have used it sooner. But a generic birds eye view had seemed less useful at the outset than Akamaru following the specific scent trails of Shikamaru and Hinata. She had been content to follow his nose until now.

The last two days it had rained or been so overcast a bird's view would not have provided much information. Today promised to be clearer judging from the rate the mist was rising.

"Yeah, well, when the mist clears, I'll go up and have a look," she said resigning herself to the fact that she was going to have to get this over with sooner or later.

"Do you need us to assist you in any way?" Shino asked. "Should one of us…catch you?"

Ino found it touching in an odd sort of arms-distance kind of way. She could imagine Shino stiff-armed, holding her as far away as possible but still managing to keep her from hitting the ground.

"S'all right," she said, "I'll just sit down. I'll just make sure I'm not near a rock or a log so if I slump over I won't hit my head. I'll look…dead to you but I'll be back shortly."

"I'll catch you if you want, Ino," Kiba said agreeably. She noticed he was munching on a second sack of trail mix that he had apparently pilfered out of her pack and she scowled slightly. She found it an interesting personality trait of his that he could get so ruffled up so quickly and then just as quickly stand down. Sometimes, like this morning, she found herself pushing just to get a reaction out of him. His personality was so very much different from either of her two teammates. It was kind of exciting in its own unpredictable kind of way.

Ino considered his offer. Yes, she could execute shintenshin sitting down, she could even do it lying down if need be. But she honestly did have a better record at acquiring her target if she were standing.

They packed up their tents and headed toward a small clearing. If they could flush a covey of quail she could grab one and have a look. A hawk would be better but they probably wouldn't be out until later in the day when it was warmer and they could ride the thermals, circling lazily in the sky.

A quail first, she reassured herself. They were quick, flighty little birds, not gaining much altitude but if she could catch one that was rocketing up rather than out for cover then she could borrow its eyes for a quick look just to give them a direction to head. And she could get a practice run in with Kiba as her partner in a nice grassy field. That would be good preparation for a proper look around in the afternoon with a high soaring hawk. She might ride one for up to half an hour then if she found any promising leads.

"Okay," she said, finally setting her pack down at the edge of the clearing. "This looks good enough." She was ashamed to admit her hands were sweating. Sheesh. She hadn't felt like this since…she was a kid. Wiping her palms on her pants legs she let out a long exhale. It was _just_ shintenshin she told herself.

"So whadda ya need me to do?" Kiba asked curiously.

"It will look like I'm passing out. Just…catch me, don't let me hit my head on the ground. I'll only be gone a few minutes. You can hold onto me or put me down on the ground. Just…don't leave me, okay?"

Kiba looked hurt and she was sorry as soon as she'd said it. "We wouldn't leave you Ino."

"I know," she said as earnestly as she could and it reassured her to know that she honestly believed it was true. "It's just that…I'm worried about him, you know?"

"Yeah, I figured that's why you were being such a bitch," Kiba said matter-of-factly.

She started to snap back a reply and then just laughed instead. "That bad, huh?"

"Yep. That bad." He smiled back.

"So… you think Akamaru would flush us some quail?"

Kiba brightened. "He'd love to!" He whistled for his dog and motioned to the field. Akamaru bounded joyously into the middle casting around and then nosing up a nice bunch of birds.

They took to the air with a whoosh and a flutter of wings and calls. Akamaru followed their track up, pointing into the air with his nose, his tailed plumed out prettily behind him. Ino sighted a young male heading skyward and targeted him.

"Here goes," Ino whispered as she formed the hand sign and then followed it up with the command, "Shintenshin."

She blinked and she was rising straight up into the air, only blue sky up above her. Quail-Ino felt the adrenalin surge of fear crashing through all four ounces of her feathered body, wings aching as she tried to reach higher-higher-higher to get away from the monster down below.

On the ground, Kiba caught Ino's limp body, her blond hair spilling over his arm. Soft, light, she reminded him of one of the birds taking wing overhead. He looked at her face, eyes closed, expression composed and peaceful. It was a startling contrast to the Ino of earlier this morning. Now she looked…mostly harmless.

Meanwhile, Ino took firmer control of the bird, calming its heartbeat, leveling its rise until she could loop it in the direction she wanted to go. One loop, three loops, five. She could see nothing of use to her. A hawk's eyes would be better. And an instinctive urge to rejoin its covey was beginning to take over the quail's body. Reluctantly she had to admit that she had learned nothing that would be of use to them.

She released the link and let her consciousness drift back to her own body. This was usually the part of shintenshin she enjoyed the best. Without the need to seek a target, merely homing in on her own self she could let her awareness expand broadly sensing everything around her far and wide, the birds, Akamaru, some deer at the edge of the forest, Kiba and Shino on the ground.

Spiraling back to herself she had the vaguest sense that she heard her name.

_Ino?_

Shikamaru! He was alive! She didn't know how she knew it, but she _knew_ he was alive.

She hit her body with the psychic equivalent of a thud, neglecting to clear the bird-thoughts from her head. In Kiba's arms her body gave a convulsive jerk and she came to with a gasp, her eyes opened wide with terror. He tried to hold her but she was disoriented, scrambling away from his unfamiliar hands and continuing to hyperventilate in terror.

"Ino! Ino! Are you okay?" Kiba was shouting at her, holding her by her shoulders unsure whether to shake her or hold her to keep her from harming herself.

Hearing her name was enough to help her snap out of it. Suddenly, she was limp and weak, sagging in Kiba's arms and breathing heavily.

"Ino, are you okay? Did something go wrong? Is it always like this?" Kiba was frantic, afraid she had injured herself or he had failed her in someway.

She held up a slender hand motioning for him to wait while she caught her breath. "I'm okay, " she managed to gasp out. "Just disoriented, that's all. And no, it's not always like that."

Taking a few more deep breaths to steady herself. "I was stupid. Didn't clear my thoughts before I returned. It left me…not quite aware of my surroundings."

"Did you see anything?" Shino asked.

"No, but…he's alive. I know Shikamaru's alive," Ino confidently told her teammates.

* * *

Sasuke sat alone with his thoughts considering his options carefully. He was in this situation due to a rash decision on his part. He didn't want to make things worse by making additional hasty decisions.

_If only_ he had left Nara there. The Konoha shinobi would have been on the site shortly, Shikamaru's wounds would have been healed by now and he might even be back to regular duty. More importantly, he would not be saddled with Nara and his injury.

And Konoha would have known of his entrance and that he was the one responsible for Hinata's abduction.

_If only_ he had not abducted Hinata, simply destroyed the lab as he set out to do and waited for a more opportune time to resolve the situation with her.

But Konoha was a long way from where he was currently making his base. The longer he waited the more he risked additional people knowing about her…situation.

_If only_ Karin hadn't forced his hand that night.

_If only, if only, if only._ There were probably a thousand 'if onlys' he could ruminate on tonight but only one really mattered. If only Hinata Hyuuga had not gone off and done such a damn fool thing then _none_ of them would be in this situation right now.

That was all water under the bridge, however. Shikamaru was his more pressing concern. He had not yet acceded to his demands to see Hinata because he was not sure what leverage that gave him over either of the two of them.

Sasuke knew he didn't _need_ Shikamaru's advice regarding Karin He probably knew Karin far better than Shikamaru did despite her having been gone from his presence for five years now. He had a fairly good idea of where she was headed. He had merely asked because he remembered that was what Shikamaru was best at, analysis and strategy. He found it was something he had…missed that about his friend.

The simple fact of the matter was that he didn't need leverage over them he just needed them… gone. But he couldn't bring himself to kill them outright. Shikamaru's analysis was one hundred percent correct on that account, he realized, disgusted with his own inability to act.

His thoughts were interrupted by Seito politely knocking at his door.

"What is it?"

"Sasuke-sama, Hinata is asking to see you."

Well, that was a change Sasuke thought as he rose from his chair. She usually asked to see Shikamaru. Repeatedly. "What is this about?"

"Sir, I think, that is_ she_ thinks…her sight may be returning," Seito answered.

Sasuke nodded, "Tell her I'll be there shortly."

Seito did as he was told and Sasuke went to gather a few supplies for Hinata, mostly gauze bandages. When the sight did return, sometimes even soft light was too painful to look at. Based on his own experiences he had found that a series of gauze layers helped him to control how much light actually reached his eyes whenever he had been in that condition.

A few moments later Hinata heard the door creak open on its hinges and Sasuke ask in a deep voice, "What can you see?"

"Grey, mostly, shapes and blurs, but at least it's no longer black," she answered simply.

"That's good. That's usually the first sign that things are returning to normal." She heard him set some items down on the table as he pulled up a chair near her again.

"But…it hurts," she said.

"I know," he said, his voice calming in its matter-of-factness. "Close your eyes, I'm going to make some adjustments."

Hinata heard him rattling around a bit and wondered what he was up to. As if sensing her curiosity Sasuke explained, "I've turned out the light and lit a candle. The less light there is in the room the less painful it will be for you."

Hinata nodded and then gave a little start as she felt his hands brush against her head.

"It's just a gauze bandage, I didn't mean to startle you," he said beginning to wind it slowly around her. After several passes he asked her to open her eyes.

"What can you see?"

"Nothing," she confirmed. It was a little disappointing that the first step he would take when her sense began to be restored was to recommend that she refrain from using it. Hinata ached to see all she could at the moment.

"Okay, now you unwrap the bandage slowly and stop if it begins to feel painful."

Hinata began and after the first few loops came off she whispered, "I think I can see the light from the candle." It was a soft golden glow at the corner of her eye made even fuzzier by the layers of gauze. But most importantly it did not cause her any pain at the moment.

"That's good. Why don't you stop there for now," He reached out his hand and gently pulled hers away from the gauze, tucking the loose end in to keep it from unwinding further on its own.

"Let's try this," he said and picked up the candle and passed it in front of her. The soft glow cast flickering shadows on the wall as it lit up her face when he passed it to the other side. "Did you see it move?"

"Yes," she confirmed breathlessly delighted that she could actually see such a simple act. "I suppose it's just a waiting game now?"

"It is," he agreed, "But it's nerve wracking, I know. The first time is the worst time, not knowing if or when it will come back."

"Have you experienced this more than once?" she asked, amazed.

Sasuke surprised himself by continuing to answer her questions, "Enough times to know that I don't want it to happen again. It's…difficult when you have an ocular jutsu, loss of the jutsu also means loss of the basic sense of vision, other jutsus don't have that same entanglement with specific senses."

Hinata paused before asking her next question, "Sasuke, since you have been through this before yourself, do you think…I'll be okay? That my sight will return?"

"Yes. I do. I don't think there was any permanent damage done to your eyes or your optic nerve," he paused wondering why he was being so conversational with her.

When he had overtaxed his own eyes he had been tended to by the likes of Orochimaru or Kabuto or even Madara. He couldn't recall having asked these types of questions of them. Probably he had not. Most likely they had not been interested in him just in the preservation of his eyes that they coveted. Or maybe, he reasoned, it had something to do with his fear of showing any weakness around them at the time. He decided it was some combination of both.

He did remember the gut-wrenching terror he'd felt the first time it happened to him, though. If her feelings were anything like his at the time then to her credit, she had hidden them well.

"And my chakra network?" she whispered.

The question brought him up short. For a brief moment he had been one ocular jutsu user helping out another one. Now, he was Sasuke. And she was Hinata. And it remained to be seen if she had been able to sustain the pregnancy.

"We will just have to wait and see about…that…as well," he replied tersely.

Wait-and-see in Shikamaru's case could cost Nara his life. Wait-and-see in Hinata's case and the…problem could be resolved on its own without the need for him to take direct action. Which would be…preferable.

"Thank you for your assistance, I just have one more question," she stated.

He braced himself for a plea from her, a request for reconsideration of his earlier demand. "Yes, Hinata," he sighed, "What is it?"

"When may I see Shikamaru?"


	14. Delirium

**Delirium**

Shikamaru lay on his cot looking up at the ceiling. Moments of lucidity were becoming less frequent. While he had one, or at least while he _thought _he was having one he ran over the list again in his mind.

Failed at his first mission as a chuunin.

Failed at the last mission he was assigned.

It was a rather ignoble end to a short career that had gotten off to an ignoble start.

He had not been able to bring Sasuke back to the village and now because of _that _failure he was not able to protect Hinata either.

Man, his mom would chew his ass but good over this. Too bad he wouldn't be around to hear it.

Even after all these years it still rankled him that he had failed at that first mission. According to his dad, that was a good thing. He said it gave him the drive to do better. And he did - on every mission he tried to do a better job than the one previous to it.

But what he _really_ wanted right now was a chance to do that first mission over again.

If he had that chance what would he do differently?

He told himself the first thing he would do is put Temari on that original team. If nothing else it would save him from having to break his own finger.

If Temari had been on the team they would have succeeded. She was scary. She leveled an entire forest with that fan of hers. Hell yeah, they would have succeeded. And Sasuke would have been returned safely to Konoha where Tsunade would have knocked some sense into him. And none of this would be happening right now.

Yes. If he had to do it over again, he would definitely put Temari on that team.

Shikamaru racked his brain, his brow furrowed, trying to remember. For some reason it was vitally important that he remember. He wasn't sure what the diplomatic situation had been between Suna and Konaha at the time, wasn't sure precisely when the alliance had been struck. Maybe he wouldn't have been _allowed_ to put her on the team?

Or maybe she would have said _no._

That was something that always frightened him about Temari, that she would say _no._ He wasn't quite sure why Temari saying _no _was scary but somehow it was. And the funny thing was, he couldn't even think of what question he wanted to ask her. But whatever it was, it must be big…and important…

Shikamaru realized his thoughts were completely scrambled and senseless. In his present state it appeared to be the only thing he could do, let them jostle about like this and collide with each other. It was kind of entertaining. Unfortunately some non-fun, un-entertaining thoughts decided to crash the party.

_He had been wrong in his assessment of Sasuke._

That thought had the same effect on him momentarily as if someone had splashed a bucket of cold water in his face. It shocked him into coherence, an icy stab of realization.

He had been _wrong_ in his assessment of Sasuke.

And if his analysis had been that skewed, that far off the mark then what else had he missed? He'd certainly missed Karin's involvement in all of this. Was it possible to analyze rationally the actions of a deranged person? How did you factor that in? Would Dad know? Was Sasuke deranged as well? Or was he just evil? Had he been around Orochimaru and Kabuto for so long and of his own volition that he finally just succumbed to their evil? Or had he sought them out _because_ they were exactly what he wanted and needed?

The thought taunted him again.

_He_ had been _wrong_ in his assessment of Sasuke.

His former friend _was_ going to let him die right here.

He hated to admit it to himself but he was really starting to get worried. His leg was worse, he could tell, but more worrisome still was that fever had started to overtake his whole body.

Fever is what led to this roller coaster ride of memory and delirium where he couldn't quite tell if he was remembering things the way they had happened or the way he wished they had happened or maybe even the way he wished they _would _happen in the future.

"Shikamaru!" he heard Hinata's voice from down the hall or at least he thought he did. "Shikamaru, good news, my vision is even stronger today!"

He managed to rasp out something that sounded like "That's great." But he wasn't sure Hinata heard him. She had told him a few days ago that she had regained the first hint of sight back. He seemed to recall that she had mentioned it in their last few conversations, that it was better each day. He was kind of fuzzy on the exact sequence of events.

"And you? How are you?" he could hear the concern in her voice.

"About the same," he lied. He knew he was much worse. Already he felt chilled again. It took a great deal of effort to force those words out of his dry mouth.

"Shikamaru, I believe Sasuke will let me see you as soon as my sight returns fully. I think…I am hoping that I will be able to infuse chakra then as well and perhaps help you to recover."

"That's _swell_, Hinata," Shikamaru mumbled, wondering what they were talking about now. Somehow he had lost the train of thought.

"I know I am not a fully trained medic like Sakura-chan or Ino-chan, but perhaps I can help you in someway."

"Umm-hmmmm," he mumbled.

Hinata's voice was nice. It was soft and kind and sweet. Not like Ino's voice. Ino's voice was screechy. Well, it could be screechy. When she wanted to screech at him. Which seemed to be most of the time.

_Wake up, dummy. Get a move on, lazybones. Don't die on me, dumbass._

_That's_ what Ino would be saying to him right now. Terms of endearment from her. He had better not die or Ino would be pissed off at him.

Hinata was right about one thing, though – Ino was an excellent medic. If she _were _here, if she were to suddenly come swooping in that door with the cavalry in tow she could save him.

Yes, Ino and Chouji should feel free to just swoop in any minute now and clean up this mess.

Ino and Chouji.

The last time he had seen them had been that night at dinner. Ino and Chouji were going to barbeque without him but he had tagged along when Ino invited him at the last minute.

If he hadn't tagged along it would have been just Ino and Chouji?

Would that have made it a date?

What difference did it make? He was sure over the years he'd had dinner with only one or the other of his teammates. They couldn't all three be together all the time. Of course it was going to happen sometimes that just two of them would be together.

So why did it bother him that it was just going to be Ino and Chouji that night?

Maybe it was because her ponytail had seemed especially nice and swingy that evening. That long blond ponytail was nice, he liked the way it swished along keeping time with her gait when she walked.

But other than that it wasn't like Ino was a special girl in any other way besides being his teammate and best friend.

It wasn't like she was the first girl he'd ever kissed or anything like that.

Except that she was.

Way back when they were twelve Ino had decided they should just get that first-kiss nonsense over with. That way they wouldn't be nervous when they kissed somebody they really _wanted_ to kiss. Shikamaru hadn't been as sure as she was that that was such a great idea.

But while he was still trying to puzzle out the Ino-logic she had leaned over and kissed him.

He blinked and it was over. Ino declared that now that was 'out of the way' they could each focus on somebody they _really wanted_ to kiss. At twelve years of age Shikamaru couldn't think of a name he wanted to put on that list although he wouldn't have minded another opportunity for a _practice_ kiss with Ino. And he also wasn't quite sure how he felt about not being on Ino's _really-want-to-kiss_ list. It seemed vaguely insulting.

_That_ was when Ino had announced that the person _she_ really wanted to kiss was Sasuke.

_Sasuke. _

His thoughts jerked back to the present time.

Sasuke was here and was letting him die.

Hurry up, Ino, he thought. You can save me any time you're ready.

Sasuke was here and he, Shikamaru, had royally underestimated him. Sasuke _did _have it within him to just let him die.

And if he had misjudged Sasuke's attitude toward himself then that meant he had misjudged his attitude toward Hinata.

If Sasuke was going to simply let him die then he was also more than capable of harming Hinata or her baby without compunction.

Still he couldn't figure out why Sasuke didn't just outright kill them.

Maybe he was a sadist after all.

Ino?

Where are you Ino?

_Ino?_

* * *

Hinata sagged against the wall, feeling sick with worry over Shikamaru. They had shared several conversations down the hall over the last few days. She could tell his voice had been getting weaker. Today was the worst day yet. His speech was slurred and he sounded disoriented.

It seemed so unfair that while she improved his condition worsened. She actually felt great physically, considering her living conditions. She'd found she even slept well on the lumpy old cot in the cell the last few nights now that they had slipped into some sort of routine during the course of their imprisonment.

Hinata removed the last of the gauze covering her eyes and looked around the room, still lit with the soft glow of a candle. Sasuke had left her a supply the last time she had seen him several days ago. There was no pain with this level of light and she was able for the first time to clearly see the shapes of the furniture and other objects in the cell.

The dark room and low light limited the amount of color she could differentiate, everything seemed muted in tone. Nonetheless she could distinguish the orange pillar of the candle from the yellowish golden glow of its light, the grey-green tinge to the stone walls and the dingy white color of the coverings of her cot.

With the return of her vision she felt much better. It was such a relief from the uncertainty of earlier. However, with the restoration of her sight Hinata realized there was one other test to try.

Nervously she sat down and invoked her jutsu.

_Byakugan._

Her field of vision expanded. She remained still on the cot in case she experienced the vertigo that sometimes occurred with first time users of the kekkei genkai. Her peripheral vision increased significantly and neural pathways that she hadn't used in the last two weeks engaged to allow her to process the incoming information from both sides.

Functioning somewhat like a rabbit's vision, the specialized eyes and particularly the distinctive irises of the Hyuuga clan Byakugan wielders allowed nearly a full 360 degrees of vision. However, Hyuuga were human, not rabbits, and like other humans their eyes were located forward. Where a rabbit might have a blind spot directly in front of it, Hyuugas possessed forward binocular vision. Their blind spot was to their back.

Hinata disengaged the jutsu, relieved that it still functioned but realizing she had neglected to site a landmark on either side of her to determine just how fully her field of vision had been restored.

Turning her head over either shoulder she located distinctive cracks in the stone behind her and to her left and right. Memorizing the shape of each she once again directed her gaze forward and re-engaged Byakugan. Looking backward she was satisfied that she was able to see both.

Relieved at her own return to health she knew there was yet one more vitally important item she needed to check with the jutsu, too. Allowing for the time that she had been incapacitated, which according to Sasuke had been a day and a half, then they had been held captive for over ten days now. During that time her period had not started. Counting the days since her last period she realized it had been over five weeks, at least three weeks since the procedure.

Five weeks. If she was still pregnant she would be considered five weeks pregnant or in her second month.

_If she was still pregnant._

Remaining on the cot for support she cast her gaze down and inward, searching for the tiny chakra signal from days ago. She was frustrated that her visual acuity with Byakugan was not up to the level it had been prior to the explosion. Still searching, relief finally flooded through her as she managed to locate what she was looking for. The sparkle of the new chakra signature greeted her gaze and she marveled that it was much stronger than earlier and the placenta and umbilical cord had formed. Her baby was now securely attached to the wall of her womb.

It was overwhelming. She hadn't just _conceived._ She was well and truly pregnant.

Hinata knew she wasn't the only one counting days. Undoubtedly Sasuke had his eye on the calendar as well. And he had threatened to terminate the pregnancy if she had not miscarried after the blast.

Quickly she turned her gaze to the room itself. Searching with Byakugan she traced weak stress lines in the rock walls surrounding her. While there were some in the ancient stone, the walls were so thick she doubted she would be able to power her way through them.

The hinges on the door seemed a better target however. Old and rusted she could see the weak points in the metal where it was most likely to give way. Applying chakra along those lines could easily break the hinges. The bolt, too, had its own weak points she could detect and work through. That would leave the door unsecured on both sides. It was heavy but not so much that she couldn't move it even without the benefit of it swinging on its hinges.

It would be a simple enough task to leave her cell at this point with but a few selected applications of chakra. It was probable that Shikamaru's cell was no different from her own, its own bolts and hinges able to be defeated in the same way.

And then what?

She had no idea where they were, how far away from Konoha they were and how many people guarded this facility. She had only ever been aware of Seito and Sasuke himself. She was cautiously optimistic that those two were all there were since Sasuke had made reference to the fact that they were located some place other than his normal base of operations. And that he wanted to limit the number of people who knew about her.

The major question though was how weak was Shikamaru?

This morning he sounded worse than ever before. Even if she could get them out of here, could she get them back home to Konoha? Or at least someplace safe?

Footsteps down the hall and she quickly disengaged Byakugan. There was no need to volunteer information about her recovered capabilities to either of her captors. It was most likely Seito bringing their morning breakfast.

Hinata heard him open Shikamaru's door first, heard the clank of the tray as he set it down on the table. Then she heard Seito's voice as he tried to rouse Shikamaru.

Her heart sank as she failed to hear him respond.

_Shikamaru,_ she worried, _what's happened to you?_ She had been conversing with him only moments earlier.

There was a sound of quickly rushing footsteps as Seito left to report to his master. Hinata thought about seizing the opportunity to open her own cell door since she hadn't heard Seito close Shikamaru's behind him. The time she would save by not having to work on both doors could be the difference that allowed them enough lead time to escape. Sasuke must have been close by though because just as quickly as she heard Seito's footsteps leave she heard two sets returning.

With her ear pressed against the door, she wished not for the first time that her hearing was as keen as her vision with Byakugan. The voice of Seito and the deeper one of Sasuke were muffled through the stone wall. When she and Shikamaru were communicating they were trying to ensure each could hear the other. But Sasuke and Seito were intent only on communicating with themselves, not projecting their voices down the hall so that she could hear.

"Shikamaru!" she called out but there was no answer.

"Shikamaru!" she repeated then added, "Sasuke, what's happened to Shikamaru?"

When there was still no answer to her second cry, Hinata's voice began to be frantic. "Sasuke, let me help him, please. I may be able to do something. _Please _let me try."

There was an interminable silence and then she heard his footsteps coming toward her. Hinata stepped away from the door and as it opened she saw Sasuke clearly for the first time. When he had most recently attended to her she was barely able to see, her vision had been clouded by the gauze he insisted she wear. But now even though the light was low she could make out his features distinctly.

It was no longer the face of her companion from her youth. The softness of childhood was gone replaced by the more angled lines of maturity. He still had the high Uchiha cheekbones but the planes of his face were sharper and more distinct now. The same shock of jet black hair still framed his face, though. But his eyes were cold and demanding.

Sasuke regarded her standing in front of him without the gauze covering her eyes. "You can see fully now." His words were more a statement than a question but still Hinata nodded.

Sasuke considered for a moment then spoke again. "If you wish to assist him you may…try."

Hinata's heart sank at the sound of futility in his voice. Sasuke stepped aside and she hurried into the hallway wincing painfully at the brighter lights along its length. He motioned to her right and she went to the first open door on the opposite side of the hall.

"Shikamaru!" she called as she ran to his cot and knelt beside him. "Shikamaru, wake up, please!"

His head lolled to one side and Hinata brushed the back of her hand against his forehead feeling the intensity of his fever.

"Sasuke, he's burning up. What's happened to him?" she demanded then added, "What did you do?"

"He has suffered no additional injuries since he came here. Unfortunately, the initial wound he sustained from Karin became infected, I do not believe her blade was poisoned. And our supplies here are …limited."

Hinata took in the angry red wound on Shikamaru's thigh, exposed by his cut off trousers. The flesh had started to heal over but from the heat and discoloration of the gash as well as the crusty golden color of the remaining unhealed edges it was apparent that there was a staph infection around and deep underneath, possibly against the bone.

Without thinking she quickly enabled her own limited healing jutsu to assess his injuries and then Byakugan to confirm the raging infection that lay buried in his thigh. She did what she could to ease the fever with her own chakra but Sasuke and Seito had already tried. Without removing the root cause of the fever, the infection itself, all their attempts with chakra would be merely postponing the inevitable. A fully trained healer could remove the majority of the infection by extracting it with their chakra and then administer appropriate antibiotics to prevent reoccurrence. She had the resources for neither.

"Don't you have anything to reduce his fever?" she asked looking up at him but an implacable stare greeted her. Her mouth hung open in a combination of amazement and anger that he was so ill-equipped.

"As I said, our supplies are limited."

She racked her brain for any scrap of information that would help. "Willow!" she said as a thought came to her.

"Willow?" Seito asked not understanding.

"Willow. Are there willow trees in the area? We can use the bark to make a tea for him. Willow will reduce fever."

Seito hesitated and looked at Sasuke who was staring at her in a strange way before he turned and nodded at the young men allowing him to go.

"Wait!" Hinata interrupted his progress. There was something tickling at the back of her mind, something Shino had once told her.

"Willow bark and…honey," she added. Honey, Shino had said, had antiseptic properties. Covering a wound with honey both sealed it and kept the skin moist and soft as it healed. And the honey could seep deep into the wound producing hydrogen peroxide as it penetrated killing off any infection that might be present. It had fallen out of favor with the advancement of medical jutsu but the Aburame clan still preferred the older techniques.

She had no idea where they were and if there were even any such items available. But at least it was better than doing nothing.

Sasuke nodded to Seito once again who set off immediately.

Hinata brushed her cool hand back over Shikamaru's feverish forehead, tucking a few strands of hair back out of his face as she knelt beside him.

She turned away from her unconscious friend and started to stand but had to catch herself as she was suddenly overcome with a wave of queasiness. She told herself it was undoubtedly because she had expended chakra so quickly without having done so in the last two weeks. Also the lights were so much brighter than in her own cell that she was having trouble adjusting and it was starting to cause her a headache.

As she eased herself up to standing, still keeping one hand on Shikamaru's cot for support she looked over at Sasuke who was glaring at her.

"Well?" he asked, his tone demanding.

At first Hinata wondered what he meant and then realization dawned on her.

He had seen her use Byakugan when she first tried to ascertain Shikamaru's condition! He knew her command over her own chakra had returned and that the first thing she would have done was to check her own physical condition.

Defiantly she met his stare. "Yes. I am still pregnant. And I will not terminate my pregnancy." She was shaking inside as she said it but she managed to get the words out clearly and without stammering.

"You stupid girl," he snapped. "You have no idea what kind of a life this child will face. It will be hunted from the day it is born."

"I am Main House Hyuuga. I have lived with that threat my entire life. All I ask is for our release and to be allowed to raise my child in peace in Konoha."

Sasuke glared at her again and snarled, "It's my child, too," before turning to leave.

_**A/N**__: Thanks __**so**__ very much to all who have reviewed. I truly appreciate it._

_A few notes on this chapter:_

_The first half of the chapter was an experiment in writing stream of consciousness type thoughts for Shikamaru in his fevered state. Hope it wasn't too difficult to read in that format. _

_Re: Shikamaru and Ino – to date I've just meant to convey their deep friendship. I'm not a hardcore Shika/Ino or Shika/Tema shipper. _

_Yes – you can use honey and willow bark as described. Hinata always seemed to have her little jar of ointment available and I imagined her as somewhat of an herbalist. And the Aburame clan seemed perfect for providing the knowledge about the bees and honey._

_Okay, until next chapter thanks again for reading and reviewing!_


	15. A Matter of Time

**A Matter Of Time**

Sasuke looked out the open window over the forested hills below him. He was alone in the room he had brought Hinata earlier when he demanded she terminate the pregnancy. His hands were on the cool, grey stone of the sill that was old and crumbling beneath his fingers. The hillside Keep where they were currently sheltering, the place where he held Hinata and Shikamaru in their lower level cells, had been the last holdout of Seito's clan. When they first sped away from Konoha with the two captives Seito had suggested diverting here as a stopping place.

Surveying the autumn-tinged trees arching away into the distance, Sasuke was struck by just how verdant everything was even for this time of year. The place had once been a small but thriving shinobi village, yet today hardly a trace remained in the land below. Nature had won after the remnants of the clan disbursed and she had reclaimed the ground as her own. Vines crept over the shells of buildings smoothing away the right angles that men built into soft sweeping mounds of green. Where once there had been paved streets and walkways stubborn seedlings had clung, spreading their roots to crack the hard surface apart and grow into large and sheltering trees.

Seito had never even been here before having been born in the diaspora. His few weak clanmates had been living in refugee status for years on the outskirts of Kiri when Sasuke encountered him and his brother. Seito had only ever heard about the place in stories from his mother. But her tales must have been accurate because with only a few false starts he was able to lead them here

This Keep was cut directly into sheer stone. Seito assured him that the crystalline structure peculiar to the mountains of this region would shield their chakra, particularly in the Keep itself. That was why he kept them here, to shield them all from Karin.

As well as Konoha.

Sasuke recognized that after the conclusion of the war Konoha had no longer been making a concentrated effort to track him. His official status might be listed as 'traitor' and there might be a price on his head in all the Five Great Nations but they all recognized the undeclared détente that existed between the various parties. He could envision the discussions at the different council tables over the last few years.

_Konoha had pronounced him a traitor but would she __**really **__take out one of her own?_

_What had she ever __**really**__ done against Orochimaru?_

_If anyone else did target him, would they unwittingly earn the wrath of the Leaf Village?_

_Better still, with Madara out of the way might Sasuke Uchiha be brought to the negotiating table __**against**__ the Leaf?_

Some things never changed. Alliances were tenuous at best. Always had been. Always would be.

So for the time being no official agency made too great of an effort to find him and he did not make too great of an effort to hide.

Until now.

The current situation changed all that.

Now Konoha would have a very vested interest in tracking him down if not necessarily to dispense with him, then at least to recover Hinata. And her child. More importantly, Konoha also had a very vested interest in making sure they were the first to find her before anyone else did.

Sasuke was willing to use any means at his disposal to give him an advantage over those searching for them, even if it meant hiding out in these caves for a prolonged amount of time. And he needed that time to…sort some things out.

Another thought flickered through his mind.

_Kabuto would have no difficulty 'handling' either or both these situations…_

The idea brought its own wave of revulsion. He hated to compare himself to Orochimaru and Kabuto but even he had to admit that neither of the two of them would be hesitating to act to resolve the Shikamaru or Hinata problems.

_What would Kabuto do with his former friends?_

Kabuto could have healed Shikamaru, of course. Easily. Sasuke had seen him attend to wounds equally as severe quickly and efficiently on numerous occasions.

_But he probably would have preferred to use him for some other purpose._

Not having a kekkei genkai and being of no use to Orochimaru directly, Kabuto probably would have just used Shikamaru for anatomical research. Sasuke suppressed a shudder at the image he conjured up of Shikamaru strapped to one of Kabuto's examination tables, a subject for vivisection. Or would the silver-haired medical nin just let the infection run its course taking methodical notes as rot and fever consumed the Nara jounin?

As if those visuals weren't bad enough the thoughts that came unbidden to his mind regarding Kabuto's potential treatment of Hinata were darker still. He closed his eyes against images of her own lovely lavender ones floating in a jar, preserved for some future use. They had certainly done the same or worse, harvesting Sharingan eyes for Danzou.

_Or might he have done even worse than that_?

If her outrageous plan was effective, might Kabuto have kept Hinata around for breeding purposes? Year after year she would produce another child with Byakugan or Sharingan genes?

Yes, Kabuto would have no difficulty dispensing with either Shikamaru or Hinata and would even take great pleasure in doing so.

And now Sasuke leaned out this window breathing in fresh air and questioning why he himself was having so much trouble…fixing this.

What he had told Hinata was true – he was technically capable of terminating the pregnancy. He had actually…assisted Kabuto…at Orochimaru's insistance once. There was a young kunoichi with a kekkei genkai that Orochimaru was interested in preserving. The girl was already pregnant with her boyfriend's child, a young man not of her clan. Orochimaru ordered them to terminate it so that he could impregnate her by one of the few remaining members of her clan. The girl had committed suicide before she ovulated again so the exercise had been moot. But Sasuke still remembered.

And Shikamaru was more damnably totally correct than he realized. He could not kill Hinata's child. A Uchiha child. Not that way.

His goal, his single purpose in life was to avenge his clan. It was not to wallow in the perverse pleasure of harming other human beings as Kabuto had done, or the megalomaniacal insanity of obtaining immortality and every known jutsu as Orochimaru had done. It was simply to avenge the wrong that had been done to the Uchiha clan. He wasn't going to start off with one of the first victims of his vengeance being another Uchiha. No matter how that one came into being.

He would not harm Hinata. Not while she carried his child.

_His child._

Had he actually said those words to her?

When had it gone from being a pregnancy for her to terminate to being a child – _his _child? Was it when Shikamaru had put voice to the thoughts that had been nagging inside of him all along?

And what of Shikamaru?

Sasuke drew in a deep breath and let it out in one long slow exhale. He rubbed his hands across his face clearing cobwebs from his mind as he tried to think of a way out of this…mess. And the irony of the current situation was that Shikamaru was the one person who could best help him sort out the complexities he faced .

He was saddled with Shikamaru and Hinata for the foreseeable future. This current location had been merely a stopping point, a waystation for him to take stock of the situation. They had probably stayed too long already. His abrupt departure had raised questions in and of itself back at the base. His continued absence would only make things more tenuous there at best. Sasuke recognized that there were elements within his new organization whose interests did not necessarily correspond with his goals.

Team Hebi had been a lesser successor to Orochimaru's Sound and his current group of followers was a lesser organization still. Unconsciously his hand went to where his curse mark had been and he was reminded that he didn't necessarily have the exact level of _control _over his subordinates that Orochimaru had exercised.

Sasuke sighed again. He was tired of comparing himself to Orochimaru and Kabuto. _Especially _Kabuto.

He went down the hall. Several hours had passed since Seito had returned with the items Hinata had suggested. Sasuke looked into the doorway to see Hinata kneeling beside Shikamaru, her head resting near his on the cot and her eyes closed in sleep. He noted that Seito had left the door opened and intended to punish the boy until he recognized what Seito had instinctively known. At the moment Hinata was tethered to Shikamaru by his injury. Whether the door to the cell were opened or closed she would not leave him without knowing for a certainty that he was able to survive her absence.

Hinata gave a slight start at his footstep and opened heavy lidded eyes to look at him before turning her attention to Shikamaru.

"How…is he?" Sasuke asked trying to sound as noncommittal as possible. After this effort on Seito and Hinata's part it would be a shame to lose him now.

"I…think he's more comfortable. His fever is down but it certainly hasn't broken yet." Hinata answered without looking back at him, her eyes were on Nara.

She turned and dipped a cloth into a basin of cool water, wringing it out before placing it over Shikamaru's forehead. After this simple ministration she finally turned and gave Sasuke her full attention.

"Thank you for letting me help him, Sasuke," she spoke sincerely and ducked her head politely.

Sasuke stood for a moment trying to decide how to respond. 'It seemed…necessary at the time. Your suggestions were good and able to be accommodated. Perhaps they will be of some help to him."

"Help yes, but a cure, no," she spoke softly and looked from Shikamaru to him once more. Hinata had been pondering the situation herself during her time alone with Shikamaru. She had by now come to the same conclusions that her friend had stated earlier. If Sasuke meant to harm either one of them he would have done so by now.

That left only her child. _His_ child, too. He had said so himself only hours earlier. Hinata had never been much of a gambler but she knew she was about to take the biggest risk of her life, gambling her child's life on a boy she once knew. Hinata bet that the boy she and Shikamaru had grown up with, the one Naruto still believed in and the one who had shown by his actions to date that he wouldn't intentionally harm the two of them, wouldn't harm his own child either.

"Sasuke, he won't survive," she said as simply and as matter-of-factly as she could. "I can't stop it, I can't fix it. I can only delay it. He needs a proper medical ninja."

"There are trained medics at our main location. We will transfer there in a few days."

"How far is it?" she asked. When he told her she just shook her head. "I don't know if he will make it that far. We're only a day and a half out from Konoha, you said so. We're closer to home. Tsunade is there. She can cure him."

"Konoha doesn't know of my involvement in this. If I return Shikamaru and he recovers then they will. I am not yet ready to confront them."

Hinata just shook her head. "They don't _know_? How long do you think it will take them to come to the conclusion that you're the one behind our disappearance? Do you really think they are _stupid_?"

"Karin is their obvious suspect."

She had risen now, leaving her bowl and rag at Shikamaru's bedside and turning to face him directly. "Karin. _Your_ previous companion? Again, I ask you, even if they follow that path how long do you think it will take them to capture her, or to come to the realization that it wasn't her? You accomplish nothing by keeping him here, it's only a matter of time before they find out. And _time_ is what Shikamaru doesn't have."

She had closed the distance between them and stood directly in front of him staring up into his eyes, her own eyes flickering with an anger that he couldn't recall ever having seen from her.

"As I said, we will take him to my base where the medics can treat him. If he is unable to survive the trip then it is… out of my hands."

The blow came so fast he didn't have time to intercept it. Lightning fast her open hand struck across his cheek with a resounding smack leaving red-tinged fingermarks in its wake.

Off guard only for the fraction of a second it took her hand to cross his cheek he intercepted her wrist at the bottom of the arc spinning her around so that her back was against his chest holding her tightly. He remembered Neji's blisteringly fast movements, Hinata's had been faster still. He would not underestimate her again.

"Naruto was wrong! You _have_ changed. The Sasuke I knew would let him go," she struggled against him briefly then stopped. "Just let him go," she whispered against his cheek as he leaned over her. "Just let him go _home_. I'm the one you want. You don't need to keep him here."

"It's not that simple," he said his voice deep, almost apologetic, as he spoke with his lips close against her ear. "If he goes back to Konoha, not only do they know I have you, he can tell them where we are now. This place has been useful – I don't care to compromise it. And they will mount such a search for you. Hinata Hyuga! The Hyuga heiress? There will be such a reward for your return – shinobi from all the nations will be looking for you."

"N-no… they won't," Hinata faltered her resolve wavering. He could feel her pulse racing beneath him, smell the adrenaline and fear from her. But still she managed to steady her voice and proceed with what she had planned to offer, "They…can't..."

He loosened his grip on her and allowed her to turn and face him again holding her at arms length, both his hands on her shoulders. "What do you mean?" His voice was stern.

"It's…complicated," she said as she took a deep steadying breath. "I will stay _if _you let him go and…I can arrange it so they won't come looking for me. They won't, they don't have the right to."

"What are you talking about?"

Hinata looked up at him again, her eyes large and luminous. "How did you find out about me?"

"Karin," Sasuke answered cautiously, not sure where she was going with this.

"And what did she tell you?"

"What your plans were, that you were planning to…breed…a new Uchiha clan," he replied in disgust. Hinata winced to hear him refer to it so callously.

"Anything else?" she whispered.

"Does there _need_ to be anything more than that?"

Hinata wandered back over to Shikamaru's side and knelt down again. She felt his forehead with her hand and then reapplied the wet cloth to cool him down some more.

"The Hyuga clan is not behind this. Do not blame them for my actions," she began, all her attention focused on her charge who lay unconscious before her. "Before I started this I had to…extricate myself from them legally. Shikamaru helped me do that."

"You make no sense. What does that matter to me?"

Shikamaru stirred beneath her and opened his eyes to slits. "Hinata?" his voice was harsh, parched from his fever.

Instantly, Shikamaru consumed her attention. "Yes, I am here. How do you feel?"

"Lousy," he answered truthfully and reached up to touch the cloth at his forehead. "Thirsty," he added as an afterthought.

Hinata dipped a small cup of water for him and held it to his lips as he took a few sips. He ran his moistened tongue over parched lips to relieve them then looked around the room and saw Sasuke standing over them. "Terrific. We're still here, huh?" he asked still managing to sound sarcastic even in his weakened state. "I had hoped we were back in Konoha. I heard you talking about it."

"We were…discussing that," Hinata began tentatively.

Instantly suspicious, Shikamaru's eyes narrowed to slits. "What do you mean you were discussing it?"

"Hinata said she had something else to tell me. Does she, Nara?" Sasuke had now joined her at the side of his cot and Shikamaru looked up at him with complete distrust.

"She doesn't have _anything_ to tell _you,_" Shikamaru said as sharply as he could muster.

"Shhh, Shikamaru, rest," Hinata's voice was soft as she tried to calm him, her hand again at his forehead.

Weakly he reached up and took her by the wrist, pulling her hand away and down so that he could look up at her. He realized what she was about to do. "Don't, Hinata. There's no point."

"The _point_ is saving _you_." Her tone made no allowance for him to offer a counterargument. She turned to stand and face Sasuke once more and once more Shikamaru reached for her wrist as if to hold her back but failed to stop her.

"My life for his. I will stay and will not try to escape. And I will write a letter to Konoha for Shikamaru to take with him that informs them that I am staying willingly."

"I doubt very much your sending a _note_ to Konoha will prevent them from coming after you," Sasuke's voice dripped with a sarcasm that Shikamaru had barely managed.

"And I will remind them that I am yours," she added softly.

"Mine?"

"I am _yours. _Your… property."

Sasuke glanced from one to the other, his anger rising as he sensed he was being played with. His words came out through gritted teeth, "What do you mean?"

"She's _yours_. I don't know how much simpler she can state it. The Uchiha clan _bought _her from Hyuuga as a concubine for the purpose of producing an heir," Shikamaru's brief outburst exhausted him as they both looked at him taken aback by the bitterness in his voice.

"Yes, I am yours. I will not try to escape if you agree not to harm the baby and to return Shikamaru to Konoha. Property law predates shinobi law and is recognized even in places such as the Land of Iron where there are no shinobi at all. Technically you cannot abduct me because I already…belong to you," the words were spilling out now in her desperation to get an agreement for Shikamaru to receive the attention he needed.

Sasuke was still disbelieving, "That's…arcane as well as archaic."

"Nonetheless it is binding. Konoha won't come after me. They can't legally deprive you of your property unless you are convicted of a crime. Other nations will honor the agreement as well. They may come after you for a variety of different reasons, but retrieving me is not one of them. That's why, until you are convicted or dead, you still own everything of the Uchiha clan's in Konoha. Including me."

Thin-lipped and angry Shikamaru stared at her. "Hinata, you do not have to do this for me."

"How do you know they will honor it?" Sasuke asked.

"Because _he_ wrote it," Hinata replied, pointing to their incapacitated friend then continued. "Konoha maintains the seat of the Hokage by charter from the daimyo. One of the primary obligations the charter places on the village is upholding civil agreements such as this. A deliberate attempt by the village to interfere in such an arrangement is grounds for the daimyo revoking the charter and relocating the Hokage-ship to another village within the Land of Fire."

Shikamaru couldn't look at her anymore and turned away, facing the wall. He had drafted the agreement with the intention of protecting Hinata from any possibility of duplicity by the elders in the future. Not as a bargaining chip for her to save his life.

Sasuke stared at her with piercing eyes but Hinata did not flinch under his gaze. He wondered if she realized what a potential gift she had just placed in his hands, the possibility of orchestrating the legal downfall of Konoha's power if not the physical destruction of the village. There was a certain kind of twisted satisfaction the thought gave him. He voiced one more concern. "And Hyuuga?" Property law might predate shinobi law he knew but blood ties were older and stronger still.

"Hyuuga would prefer that I was…out of the way," Hinata said with a wistful note in her voice.

Sasuke considered carefully. On the surface it did seem to remove at least the appearance of Konoha or some other government attempting a rescue. He doubted Hinata fully comprehended what quasi-governmental and extra-governmental agencies were capable of, or the criminal elements that wouldn't have been bothered by agreements in the first place.

"Shikamaru still knows the way to this place," Sasuke countered with his last argument.

Hinata shook her head. "He was unconscious the majority of the trip. I doubt even Ino could extract it from his memory now."

If possible, Shikamaru was angrier still. He must have let that slip in a moment of delirium. He couldn't remember telling it to Hinata but now here she was using it against him. He softened. She was using it against him if you counted 'trying to save his life' as somehow being against him. Still, she shouldn't be bargaining with her life for his own. It was his job to protect her and now she was the one saving him.

There was a long uncomfortable pause between them, one broken member from each of the original three rookie teams. Finally, Sasuke spoke. "Very well. Let me know when he can travel. I will arrange with Seito to get him as near to Konoha as possible without himself being detected."

With his back to them, Shikamaru winced as he heard Sasuke's declaration.

Hinata started to protest that that wasn't good enough. She didn't want him dropped off somewhere close to Konoha but delivered directly to Tsunade herself. Then she realized it was the best she was going to get out of Sasuke.

"And in return," Sasuke said, "you remain here as…"

"Chattel," Hinata finished for him.

_**A/N:** Thanks so much for all the feedback on the previous chapters. I truly appreciate it._

_A few notes on this chapter and the last one. I apologize for the delay but it took a while to write because I was putting the three of them together in the situation in a certain way. I tried to develop a symmetry between them by having Shikamaru physically damaged and questioning his reasoning, Hinata emotionally damaged and questioning her ethics and Sasuke psychologically damaged and questioning his resolve. To a certain extent the three of them reflect my feelings on Konoha at the moment based on the manga - just what does Konoha stand for anyway? But please let me know what you thought. _


	16. Rumor Has It

**Rumor Has It**

"What are you going to do?"

"I'll not be drawn into insubordination over idle gossip."

"But still…if it's true…"

"There's no point in speculating with such limited data."

"But…if there is a split…and you side with them then maybe there could be a way…"

"I said I would find a way and I will. I promise you that. But it won't involve betrayal."

"I know. I love you."

"Then love me for who I am."

"I do," the young woman said with a sigh.

Shikaku paused in the hallway as he caught the snippets of whispered conversation. He was in the main armory, intending to pick up some kunai to replace a few damaged ones. He recognized the voices immediately and knowing them he could surmise the original topic of discussion between the two. He quickly weighed the pros and cons of announcing his presence. The pair's conversation had merely confirmed the worries he and Tsunade had had for a while now. Calculating that it was in the best interests of all involved he opened the door, making a point to do so rather noisily.

The rushed reaction of the two would have been amusing if the topic of their immediately preceding discussion had not been so weighty. Two bodies rushed to opposite sides of the small room, feigning interest in whatever weapons were in front of them.

"Commander Nara, sir," Neji looked up and addressed him trying to sound unfazed and for the most part succeeding, "Good afternoon."

"Good afternoon, Neji, Tenten," he acknowledged them both.

"Hello, sir," Tenten spoke, her voice high and quavering. She wasn't doing as good of a good job at recovering from their discovery. Even if her voice wasn't betraying her, the blush spreading across her cheeks certainly would.

"Preparing for an away mission?" Shikaku asked conversationally as he turned to the rack where the kunai he was looking for were stored.

"I am, yes sir," Tenten replied with a somewhat steadier voice as she began to select her own weapons for the upcoming trip.

"And how nice of you to come up here to say goodbye," Shikaku said, turning and smiling, making a point to address this comment to Neji.

_That _almost ruffled the famous Hyuuga reserve. Shikaku saw his body tense and knew exactly what he was thinking. _How long was he outside the door and what did he hear._

"Sir?" Neji said trying and failing to look indignant.

"Oh, don't mind me," Shikaku said cheerfully but his gaze was steel as he met Neji's eyes. "I've got what I came for." He patted the pouch containing the newly obtained kunai but let the double meaning of his words sink in. _Yes, Neji, I know exactly what you and Tenten were discussing. And why._

"I…," Neji thought about explaining and then realized just how foolish that was. "Yes, sir," he finished.

"Well, then, I'll leave you two to it," Shikaku replied. "Carry on." And again his double meaning was intentional.

As the door closed once more behind him, Shikaku contemplated the full import of what he had just overheard. However it had happened the word was obviously out, at least in the form of a rumor.

Hinata had been replaced by Hanabi. That much was in the open, acknowledged by both clan leadership as well as the village elders. What was grist for the rumor mill was the underlying _why_. Especially since Hinata was now absent from the village.

Rumors being what they were he had heard of some rather outlandish whispered suspicions regarding this. One had it that Hiashi had simply had her killed. Another was that she had committed suicide and the Hyuuga Main House was covering it up. Still a third, and possibly more reasonable one was that she had been married off to a distant relative, a merchant in a remote village.

None of these could approach the outrageous truth of the matter, that Hinata was pregnant with a Uchiha child conceived artificially and now abducted along with another shinobi, specifically his son.

Clearly the cover story he and Tsunade had concocted of Hinata's extended absence from the village being due to a covert assignment was wearing thin.

But Shikaku knew enough about internal Hyuuga clan relationships to know that the topic Neji and Tenten were discussing had more to do with Hanabi assuming clan leadership after Hiashi than it did with Hinata's disappearance itself.

_Split._ Tenten had said _'if there is a split.'_

The idea that a second born child would assume Main House leadership would rankle among the Branch family members as nothing else could and it would particularly bother Neji Hyuuga.

Shikaku had known both the brothers growing up, Hiashi and Hizashi. In every area, Hizashi excelled over his brother and yet through an accident of birth, by mere minutes Hizashi was second born. He was sealed with the Caged Bird, subservient to the Main House for the rest of his life. As was Neji.

Even though Hyuuga were generally known for their calm and reserved natures, there were hotheads among every group. There were always grumblings among certain members of the clan. To his credit, ever since his chuunin exams Neji had held himself above all that, adhering scrupulously to the will of the Main House and openly supporting their leadership. But now this.

Personally, Shikaku could have cared less about Neji and Tenten's private relationship. As long as they didn't let it interfere in their missions they could merrily knock boots every night as far as he and Tsunade were concerned. However, Hyuuga leadership looked at these things very differently and would never agree to allow him to marry a clan-less village shinobi, an orphan, like Tenten.

Although occasional inter-clan marriages were allowed for Branch Family members, both parties had to agree that all children of the union had to be tested for Byakugan and if found to possess it subsequently sealed. Most non-Hyuuga families weren't keen to agree to such terms and so these types of marriages were few. Even among these unions Byakugan was a recessive trait and rarely occurred outside intra-clan pairings.

And Neji was special. He possessed an unparalleled level of skill with both Byakugan and Gentle-Fist techniques, truly deserving of both the terms genius and prodigy. No way were they letting those genes outside clan control. If Hiashi and Hizashi had simply been brothers and not identical twin brothers then Shikaku was certain the clan would have arranged a marriage between first cousins, Neji with either Hinata or Hanabi. Unfortunately, although legally Neji was their first cousin genetically they were the equivalent of half brother and sisters, close enough even to give the Main House pause.

If Neji was in love with Tenten then the hot heads of his clan may have found the wedge they needed to break his allegiance to the Main House. Once the truth came out everyone would know Hiashi and the Main House had broken their own rules, given Hinata unsealed over to another clan just for the sake of the village leadership's support of the second-born Hanabi as their clan leader. Why should anyone else then respect their wishes regarding whom they could marry?

The threat of rebellion against the clan leadership maintained a delicate balance with the threat of that leadership invoking the Cage Bird seal to destroy any perceived rebels. Neji could command enough of a following to throw that system out of balance. After all, Main House could only kill so many of their own members before the clan became unsustainable.

As if it were possible to make matters any worse, Shikaku knew that Hyuuga clan maintained a byzantine network of relationships between various business entities within Konoha and throughout the Land of Fire. Not to mention the fact that they had substantial holdings in some of the other nations as well, such as Lightning and the Land of Iron. If there were a rebellion among Hyuuga clan members it could have repercussions throughout all Five of the Great Nations and beyond.

Two girls. Shikaku realized that the fate of the village could rest in the actions of these two girls, Hinata and Tenten. Women, it would seem, continued to be troublesome.

* * *

Hinata entered with a tray containing broth and tea for Shikamaru. He looked at her as she set it down on the small table and then looked away. Few things angered him but for some reason this did, the idea that she would give up herself for _him._

"It would make it easier for me to say goodbye if you would look at me, Shikamaru," her voice was soft and sweet as always. He found he was unable to deny her. Hinata was someone with whom it was impossible to stay mad. Perhaps he was still angry about the sacrifice she was making, but not at Hinata herself.

"Don't do this," he uttered vainly for about the one hundredth time.

"You know it's the only way. I'm at the limit of what I can do. Assess yourself. How long do you think you have in your own estimation?"

He grudgingly had to admit to himself that she was right. "Who's taking me? Seito or Sasuke?"

"Seito. Sasuke wants him to keep both of you cloaked as long as possible…"

"In case Karin is in the area? So that leaves you here with _him_?

"And are you in any condition to do anything about it if you were to remain here with me?" she asked in exasperation.

There was a long pause as they both considered what protection, if any, Shikamaru could have provided for her defense against Sasuke.

"No," he replied bitterly. "But it's foolish Hinata, you know I'll just tell them the way back here. I may not remember how we came here, but I'm certain to remember the return trip."

"I've thought about that," she answered offering him the cup of broth.

"Seriously? You've added something to the broth?" he quirked an eyebrow up and almost smiled. " C'mon Hinata, I'm Nara clan, don't you think I'd be able to recognize the taste of it, whatever it is? I might even have enough chakra to neutralize it depending on what you've used."

"No," she shook her head slightly. "There's nothing in the broth. I promise. Nor the tea either. Of course I remembered. It would have been pointless to try to lace either with something so easy for you to detect. You should drink them both . You'll need your strength for the trip." She offered the cup to him again.

He exhaled sharply and took the first cup from her, sipping it at first and then finally draining it. He hated to admit it but it felt good, warm and satisfying. He realized how badly his body must need nourishment. When she offered him tea, he accepted it more gratefully.

"I should thank you," Shikamaru started then reconsidered. "No, I _do_ thank you, Hinata. For everything you've done, everything you're trying to do…for me."

"As I thank you, Shikamaru," she replied, resting her hand on his forehead, checking his temperature again. Idly she stroked it back against his hair and he found it comforting.

Weakly he took her wrist in his hand. "Hinata, if this was another time, another place…"

"Shhhh," she stopped him, gently disentangling her wrist from his grasp and placing her finger cool across his lips. "It's our destiny to part now. Perhaps it will be our destiny to see each other again."

Feather light she trailed her fingers down his chin, his jaw line to beneath his ear. Her thumb rested beneath his ear, her fingers curled around behind his head to touch the base of his skull. Shikamaru's eyes flew open in realization.

"Hinata! What are you…? Don't!" He struggled vainly against her with his hands and also trying to invoke kagemane but he was too weak.

"Shhh," she whispered again. "I _am_ sorry," she said as she applied gentle pressure to his carotid sinus signaling his heart to slow down. Then she channeled her chakra to close his head chakra point. Shikamaru slumped back against the pillows completely unconscious.

"Is he asleep?" Sasuke asked and she turned to see that he had entered the doorway.

"Unconscious, yes, as we agreed," she answered rising slowly and facing him. "I've disabled his optic and auditory nerves temporarily too. He should remain unconscious for over twenty four hours. Even when he awakes, he won't be able to see or hear anything so that should keep him disoriented about his surroundings. It's something Tsunade will easily be able to undo in the hospital, however."

"Very good," Sasuke nodded. "Seito is ready. I've given him the supply of soldier pills you and Shikamaru had on you. With the pills and if he doesn't stop for a rest break on the way here, he should be able to make the trip in about thirty two hours."

"But Shikamaru will be dead weight he's carrying…" Hinata began worried about the pace Seito would be able to maintain.

"As he was for most of the trip here, as well," Sasuke finished for her. "What else do I need to prepare Seito for?"

Hinata bit her lip dreading the betrayal she was about to commit, not so much against Konoha but against her former teammates. "I don't know about all ninja hounds and the specific abilities of Kakashi's summons of course, but whenever Seito crosses water he should travel up or downstream some distance to throw them off the scent. If it is possible at some point during the journey he should obtain some strong spice, strong pepper is most effective and scatter it thickly anywhere he rests. Or…"

She felt guilty even though there would be no lasting harm done to the dogs, just irritate their noses temporarily.

"Or what?"

"Barring spice or pepper, he could crush up one of the soldier pills and spread it on the ground. The stimulant will irritate their noses as well."

Sasuke nodded. "Seito's cloaking should help prevent any sensor ninja from detecting them unless they are at particularly close range. What about Aburame?"

Hinata answered, "They are most effective at tracking their own hive-mates. He should check himself thoroughly when leaving the vicinity of Konoha to make sure he doesn't have any 'hitchikers.' Have him check his clothes and hair carefully and remove any he finds but don't kill them. They give off a chemical trace in death that's even easier for their hive-mates to detect."

Hinata felt forlorn. It was not like she had divulged any classified information to him, just things that weren't common knowledge among ninja who were not trackers. Or those used to working closely with trackers, she remembered with a tug at her heart_. Shino, Kiba, I'm sorry, _she thought silently to herself, _but it's all to ensure Sasuke helps Shikamaru._

Seito came in and they helped him arrange Shikamaru's limp body as comfortably as possible at his back.

"Don't worry miss," Seito smiled at her. Over the last two weeks he had become fond of Hinata and her gentle, grateful nature. "I'll get him there as quickly as I can."

"Make sure he has this," Hinata said, slipping a cord over Shikamaru's neck. From it dangled a sealed scroll addressed to Tsunade in Hinata's handwriting.

"I will," Seito reassured her.

"You have your instructions. We'll see you in four days," Sasuke said as Seito turned to leave.

"Hai, my lord," the younger shinobi nodded and then he left.

Hinata watched him leave out the door and vanish down the hall taking Shikamaru with him. She resisted the urge to follow and to watch them out of sight into the forest. Turning back into Shikamaru's room she saw Sasuke standing with his arms crossed looking at her.

"Four days?" she queried. Ideally she had expected Seito back in three, one and a half out and one and a half for the return.

"He'll need to rest when the soldier pills wear off. He'll be exhausted, drained of chakra. And, I've ordered him to make a stop to pick up supplies."

"Oh?"

"We'll be staying here a while. At least until…" He motioned at her middle and Hinata caught the impact of what he was saying. Until the baby came.

Some of Hinata's sense of bravado left her at that moment. Up until now she had been staying strong for Shikamaru's sake, doing everything in her power to help him and to help coordinate his return to Konoha. She had known and accepted everything that was coming - to be left here with Sasuke, to accede to being his property, his servant, agreeing not to attempt to flee.

But there was something final in that statement of his that made her realize just how alone she was now. Alone and adrift. Her baby would be born here, away from Konoha. No Tsunade or Shizune in attendance. No help from Kurenai afterwards.

Hinata felt very small and very alone and very weak. She paled.

Sasuke moved toward her, concerned. "Hinata? Are you ill?"

She swayed on her feet. Weak. She was weak that's all it was. She had been so busy with Shikamaru this morning she hadn't even eaten her own breakfast that Seito had prepared. Her knees felt wobbly and a wave of nausea washed over her and she covered her mouth with one hand.

Sasuke's hand was at her elbow but she jerked away from him and turned to run back to her own cell. "Hinata? What's wrong?" he called hurrying after her. He entered her the open door of her cell to find her retching into the washbasin.


	17. Dark Secrets

**Dark Secrets**

Hinata felt the damp cloth pressed against her lips. With her back to him, still leaning over the basin, she accepted it blindly from his outstretched hand. The coolness was a blessed relief and she kept it against her face, covering her eyes and nose as well as her mouth for just a moment. When she finally did feel steadier she wiped her face and stood, turning to face him. Only then with a shock of horror did she realize what she had just done.

"Sasuke-_sama_, I'm…I'm so sorry, " she managed to utter as she bowed very deeply to him. Hinata was mortified. Had she actually just thrown up in front of Sasuke? What an expression of weakness that must seem to him!

For his part, Sasuke found the use of the high honorific along with her obsequious bow oddly unsettling. Although he accepted such from members of his former and current teams he didn't _demand_ it as Orochimaru had done. It highlighted their recent change in status in a way he wasn't sure he was comfortable with and it sounded doubly strange to hear it coming from someone he grew up with.

"Hinata, stand up," he said then added brusquely, "I asked if you were ill or if this is part of …the pregnancy."

Hinata paused, considering. It had come on so suddenly and now that it was over she no longer felt nauseous. If it was morning sickness it was her first bout of it and she had nothing to compare it to.

"I'm…not sure," she answered. "I feel better now but I haven't been sick any time yet since the procedure."

"You should eat, then," Sasuke interrupted curtly not wanting to dwell on the actual point in time or mechanics that led to her current condition. He motioned to her now-cooling breakfast. "That will reduce the symptoms. Finish then meet me upstairs."

Hinata bowed then watched him turn and walk away. She cleaned up as best she could and directed her own attention to the food Seito left on her table. Fish and rice. The rice seemed a safe bet, filling but bland. She wasn't quite sure her stomach was settled enough for fish yet so she left that alone.

Once she was finished she followed the hallway between the cells and ascended the same stairs Sasuke had guided her up earlier. Sasuke had not told her where to meet him but she remembered the way to the room he had used earlier and went there not surprised to find him waiting on her.

Hinata entered then bowed deeply and formally. Once again Sasuke found himself uncomfortable with her acknowledgement of her status.

"Rise, Hinata," he snapped curtly. "You will stop this ingratiating behavior. There is no need for it. Model yourself after Seito. Respectful – yes, obedient – yes. But this hang dog lackey behavior is insulting."

Confused, Hinata hesitated, "Yes, my lord…Sasuke…sama?" She stumbled over the terms, unsure what he expected from her. "How should I address you?"

Sasuke sighed. To a certain extent she was right. Seito did address him in this manner. It was just that it had sounded so _foreign _coming from _her_. "We should clarify that now, while it is just the two of us here."

Hinata nodded and waited for him to continue.

"You are my bondservant. I have accepted you as such and I have no doubt you'll uphold your end of our agreement. However, it will soon become apparent that your position is…different…from that of others who serve or follow me." He paused before continuing

"Yes, Sasuke-same," she managed to say in agreement and duck her head politely without actually bowing, trying to strike the middle ground he was describing. "Will the others who become aware of my condition… will we be traveling to your base or will they be joining us here?" she asked, curious if he would be relocating them soon.

"That remains to be seen. For the time being I have three specific tasks for you in the coming days. I will know more about our ability to occupy this place after Seito returns."

Another polite nod of acknowledgement from her and she said, "Yes, Sasuke-sama. What would you have me to do?"

"You will be responsible for inventorying this keep. I think you will find you need to pay particular attention to the status of its defenses, since the life of your child may depend upon on our ability to hold a position here. I assume you'll be motivated to do a thorough job?"

His last question was almost a taunt and Hinata realized what a sobering responsibility he was giving her. Within Konoha, surrounded by the village, her fellow shinobi, especially her teammates and Shikamaru, and Kurenai she had always felt protected. Although Shikamaru's dedication to her safety had seemed excessive in the end he had been right. And now, here she was outside of Konoha and finding that Sasuke himself had the same types of concerns.

"Y-yes, I will. I understand. What do you think would be the most likely threats we would face here?"

"That is part of your second task," Sasuke answered, walking to a table in the room and motioning for her to sit in the chair beside it as he unfurled the scrolls he had displayed for Shikamaru earlier. "The most likely threat _you _face is from Karin. These maps display the locations of Orochimaru's previous bases. She is most probably using one of them at the moment. Shikamaru would not or could not give me an analysis that prioritized the ones she was potentially using. Again, I assume you will be motivated to be thorough since it is your life that hangs in the balance, no?"

Dispassionately he let the question hang in the air between them.

"But…why Karin?" Her question was earnest. Although it was obvious from their initial encounter that _what_ Karin wanted was her child, she could not comprehend what had _led_ her to that desire.

"How well did you know her?" Sasuke asked.

"Hardly at all. I was acquainted with her, nothing more. I never even had a mission with her."

"Was she involved with your decision to go through with this?"

"What? No."

Sasuke considered. "Obviously she was at some level. Or somehow she managed to find out."

"But still…why does she want this so?"

"I might ask you that same question," Sasuke added coldly.

Hinata just looked at him as he went on. "Tell me, Hinata, have you even considered how it is you came to be pregnant? How did Konoha come into possession of their genetic samples in the first place?"

She studied him as he stood looking back at her from the end of the table. "I…They were recovered from one of Orochimaru's labs," she answered weakly once again unsure what was expected of her.

He gave a half smile that was cold and brittle but there was something hurt and broken flickering behind his eyes. "Further back than that. How did they come to be in Orochimaru's lab?"

"I…um…," Hinata blushed and cleared her throat. "I suppose you…provided them?" and once again she phrased it hesitatingly.

He laughed this time and it was as cold as his smile from a moment ago. "You really are a piece of work, you know that? Let's try again, how do you suppose I _provided_ Orochimaru with those samples? It isn't exactly like drawing a blood sample, you know."

Hinata blushed furiously and couldn't look at him. "Oh!"

Sasuke couldn't help but enjoy her discomfort, playing with her cruelly like a cat. "Typically, there's a stimulus involved, pictures, pornographic images…"

"I…I understand," she stammered.

"Karin was a convenient subject for the photographs. I imagine Kabuto enjoyed staging them. Once I remember she was in the next room and we were separated by a glass wall. She would…"

"Stop! Please, Sasuke-sama, I don't need to know anymore."

"Oh, but I think you do. I think you need to be fully cognizant of exactly the circumstances of your child's conception. Our child. Because someday he's going to want to know where he came from! And I want you to be sure to tell him what kind of monsters his parents really are!"

Ashen faced, she set clutching the edges of her chair, staring at him. Sasuke tsk-ed at her embarrassment. "Poor little Hinata, still pure as the driven snow. Too bad you didn't marry that dobe, your Prince Charming, Naruto."

Shocked though she was over his revelation she surprised herself by not even flinching at his reference to her childhood crush. "He married Sakura," she replied softly, still unable to look at him.

"What?" Sasuke asked, unsure if he had heard her correctly.

"Naruto. He married Sakura. They're expecting a child soon," she caught herself before adding the 'too' unable to imply that the situation between herself and Sasuke was remotely like that shared by his two former friends and teammates.

Sasuke just looked at her. There was something about that statement that brought him up short. Naruto and Sakura married? It didn't seem possible. And expecting a child? His mind snapped back to when the three of them had been a team. Ten years ago but it seemed like a century.

It wasn't that he had any illusions about pursuing Sakura after all these years. Her crush on him had been as ephemeral as it seemed Hinata's for Naruto was. But there was such a finality about it. Sakura and Naruto had grown up, changed and moved on. And he…he didn't finish the thought.

"Sasuke?" her voice was a whisper barely audible but enough to jerk him back to the present.

"What?" he did note that she'd dropped the 'sama' for the moment.

"When you were there…did they…that is…were you…_abused?"_

He wanted to lash out at her. To call her stupid. To make fun of her pure, doe-eyed view of the world and to take great pleasure in disabusing her of her ridiculous notions that any good did actually exist in the ninja world. To own up to the fact that everything he had done he had done deliberately on the path he had set for himself.

But he found he couldn't. Her concern seemed genuine. For the first time in years she seemed to be the one person who was asking about his well-being without an ulterior motive, without trying to talk him into going back to Konoha, simply trying to understand who he was_ now._ So he answered her truthfully.

"I was twelve when I arrived. What do you think?" His voice was cold, level and neutral but his eyes said something different entirely.

"I'm sorry," she said simply. She reached her hands out to smooth the scroll in front of her. "I will do my best."

Sasuke watched her turn her attention to the maps. "That's good," he said, feeling drained. "Karin is deranged. She has confused…what happened…with…a perverted form of love. She remains your biggest threat."

She looked up at him once more, "And my third task?"

"Yes, that. You still haven't answered my question from earlier. What made you decide to do this? I order you to tell me."

Hinata was taken aback. Her original decision process had been so personal and private, shared only with Kurenai and eventually some portions of it with Shikamaru. It seemed unthinkable to go over it with Sasuke now.

"I…suppose a lot of it had to do with the timing of things. My decision was influenced to a great degree by my clan and my standing in it."

"What do you mean by that?"

She half shrugged. "It's no secret that my father has thought for years now that Hanabi should have my place as his successor. When the council presented me with this option to help attempt to revive Sharingan in Konoha it gave me a chance to consider something radically different than the choices available to me within Hyuuga."

"So it _was_ a choice, not an order from the council?" For some reason, he couldn't stand the thought that the same council that ordered the destruction of Uchiha would _order_ it's re-establishment.

"Yes. It was my decision to make."

"And you decided to do this by yourself. To deny your child a father and a clan?"

Hinata met his gaze and for the first time he heard a tinge of frost in her own voice, nothing to match the coldness of his own but still it was there. "It has been my experience," she replied, "that a child can survive just fine without its father."

"Still, you don't know what it's like to lose your entire clan or else you would not say such a thing."

"Perhaps not," she countered and her voice held its own edge, "However, I do know what it's like to be denied your clan, to live away from them but in the same village. To see Neji and Hanabi each day at the Academy and training but be denied the opportunity to go home with them at night."

"When did this happen?" Sasuke asked puzzled, never having paid much attention to others beyond his own teammates.

"After we graduated from the Academy. When I was assigned to Kurenai's team. My father sent me away and she allowed me to live with her."

Sasuke considered. "I knew you spent extra time at the end of each day with Kurenai and arrived with her in the mornings but I thought…"

Hinata actually interrupted him and finished the sentence for him. "You thought she had to spend extra time training me because I was so deficient. Everyone did. I never tried to correct anyone. It was easier than admitting the real reason, that my father wouldn't allow me to come home."

Cold-hearted bastards came in all shapes and sizes, Sasuke was learning. "And now?" he asked.

"Now I visit Hanabi occasionally in the clan compound. My father has allowed it since Konoha was rebuilt. But I no longer live there, my home is in the village with Kurenai."

There was a heavy silence between the two of them. It was odd to Sasuke that Hinata had mentioned nothing about him personally that affected her decision. Every other girl he remembered from Konoha had been chasing after him the last time he was there, Ino, Sakura, even that kunoichi from Suna, Temari. Then later after he left, Karin herself. Hinata was the only female he had ever encountered who had not been trying to ensnare him.

But now she was the one who was pregnant with his child.

It was a supremely ironic situation. He imagined that somewhere beyond the grave Orochimaru was enjoying this genetic drama play out immensely.

"You have a lot of work to do," he said, deciding that they had said enough to each other for the day. You can start with the upper levels and work your way down. Determine what can be repaired and what needs to be resupplied. I am going out to hunt. Do not leave the structure."

"Oh, please, would it be possible for me to go with you?" There was a hint of desperation in her voice as she looked up at him. She had not been outside in so long she ached for sunshine and fresh air.

He was going to answer with a curt 'no' but relented. "When we've mapped the mineral deposits that provide the masking then we will understand the perimeter better. Until then, no."

Disappointed she still rose and bowed as he turned to leave. "I will return by evening," he called back as he left the room.

"Yes, Sasuke-sama."

As the door closed between them it occurred to both Sasuke and Hinata that they had not resolved the matter of her status and how she was to address him.


	18. Tea In Suna

**Tea in Suna**

A bell jingled merrily as Temari opened the door and entered the tasting shop. The fragrant aromas of a number of teas imported from the various nations greeted her. The small shop was in reality the front of a very large warehouse owned by one Satoshi Hyuuga, the largest wholesaler of tea and several other commodities in Suna.

Temari was acquainted with the man having worked with him on a number of tariff issues in the past on behalf of the Kazekage's office. Not to mention the occasional investigation if his supply shipments were ever disrupted within Wind borders. She recognized him, seated at a small, low table enjoying green tea with another familiar person, Neji Hyuuga.

The older man rose to greet her and as he did so he touched Neji's forearm in what she supposed was a fatherly manner. The younger Hyuuga quickly rolled up the small scroll between them and tucked it in his tunic, joining his relative in greeting her as well.

"Temari-san," Satoshi said bowing politely along with Neji, "how nice to see you. What brings you here today? Won't you join us for tea?" He motioned graciously for her to sit with them.

"Thank you." Temari said as she settled herself at the table and looked with dismay at the green tea in the cups in front of the men. She hated green tea. She always made it a point to pack her own supply of black teas into Konoha whenever she traveled there for an extended time. It was the source of a running joke between her and the Leaf kunoichi she had befriended - that she preferred her tea like her men, strong and dark and not the least bit _green_, a teasing reference to her diplomatic counterpart's, Shikamaru's, age_._

Satoshi caught her look and laughed. "Not to worry. I know your tastes. After all, isn't it I who keeps the Kazekage's office supplied? You Suna natives are all alike, always preferring your homegrown." He motioned to a worker behind the counter.

Temari was thankful for the small distraction over the tea. It gave her a moment to compose herself. Never lie to a Hyuuga, that was one of the key lessons Baki had pounded into her when she first started as a liason in Konoha. They could pick up on microfacial expressions with ease. Best to stick with the truth around them, just perhaps…not all of it.

"The reason I'm here is I have a message from Commander Nara," she said with a smile as she produced a small scroll of her own and handed it to him. Neji, she noticed, shifted almost imperceptibly at the mention of the name and glanced down where he had tucked his own message into his tunic just a moment earlier. Perhaps she wasn't Hyuuga herself, but she could tell that her statement made him uncomfortable if only for a flicker of time.

"Commander Nara? What could he want with me?" Satoshi laughed jovially as he cracked upon the seal and unrolled the message but the sound seemed forced. In his own way he seemed as uncomfortable as Neji. "Spices?" Puzzled he began to read, "Teas? Dates? _Figs?_ Why, it's a _shopping_ list," He laughed again but this time with relief, "Temari-san, I think your message is actually from _Yoshino-san_. Have you been reduced to a serving girl?"

Temari shrugged. "Let's just call it professional courtesy, then. I'm due to head back there in a few weeks in preparation for the chuunin exams. Now that you mention it, I think Yoshino-san did say something about hosting a dinner party for the proctors during the exam. I suppose that's what it's about"

"Not a problem my dear," the older gentleman reached over and patted her shoulder. "I will be able to give you everything Yoshino-san asked for on the list in plenty of time for your departure."

Just then her tea was served. As she prepared her cup, Temari thought to herself, _Yes, and you've already given me everything Commander Nara asked for. _

The Konoha hawk had arrived two days earlier. She had recognized the Nara clan symbol on the message immediately and had supposed it to be from Shikamaru. But the chakra seal beneath the wax didn't match his precisely and the script wasn't his either. The message had come from his father, Shikaku.

Domestic privacy laws and civil liberties within the constitutions of both the lands of Wind and Fire prevented each nation from spying on their own respective citizens. Nothing prevented a Suna intelligence agent from spying on a _Konoha_ citizen, however, and reporting that back to her own chain of command. And if they or she were to additionally report anything of interest back to Konoha, well, that would just be considered a… professional courtesy.

After she had decoded the message the hawk carried, she puzzled over it:

_Neji Hyuuga will be on a mission in Suna for two weeks. Any information you could provide on his contacts during that time would be most appreciated. If and when he makes contact with Satoshi Hyuuga, if you could present Satoshi with this message in Neji's presence and report back on their behaviors it would be quite useful._

She had handled requests like this before. They were not unheard of and she knew that Konoha gave as good as it got in the shared intelligence arena. Ibiki was always willing to share anything with Suna that they requested or he thought they might find useful. The alliance had proven more than mutually beneficial over the last few years.

But this?

Hyuuga?

_Neji _Hyuuga?

And why the hell did Shikaku Nara himself ask for the information? Anything like this that she had done in the past had always come through Ibiki Moreno.

What the hell was Neji Hyuuga involved in that had gotten Shikaku Nara to _spy_ on him?

Temari sighed and savored her tea, engaging in idle chit chat with the two Hyuugas as she mentally prepared her report. Neji had already met with several of his clan mates who were stationed here in Suna. She had that list prepared at her office for Shikaku. Neji's two weeks weren't up yet, but she decided then and there to send a report back today since Satoshi was the specific person of interest Shikaku had asked about.

"And you, Temari? When can we expect you to marry?" Satoshi patted her hand once again and she nearly splattered her tea on the table. The man, she realized was the most overly gregarious Hyuuga she had ever met.

"I, um, I beg your pardon?" She replied while trying not to cough, having suddenly swallowed a mouthful of hot tea.

"I keep telling Neji here to put some pressure on those old aunts of his. They should be making a match for him with some lovely young girl by now. Perhaps if there was another big wedding in Konoha it would spur them to action," he winked at her.

"I, um…I don't know what to say to that," Temari replied, genuinely bewildered. "Not me, not getting married anytime soon." _Because I need a husband like a fish needs a bicycle._

"Ah, forgive me, I assumed Yoshino was planning a _special_ dinner. Well, be that as it may, Neji, you should still put that pressure on the Main House to decide your fate."

His statement nearly caused Temari to drop her cup that time. Was he implying that _she_…and _Nara_…?

He embarrassment nearly caused her to miss Neji's reaction. He sat fuming in his chair. 'If looks could kill' really meant something when applied to a Hyuuga she decided.

_That_ was interesting. Now what could tick him off that much? Something else curious she would add to her report to Shikaku.

And besides, Yoshino planning a special dinner to _announce _something was _absurd._ Out of the question. They weren't dating. They were _just_ co-workers. Anyway, she hadn't heard from Shikamaru in a couple of weeks.

Where was he anyway?

* * *

Seito balanced precariously in the tree, trying to steady both himself and the limp body of Shikamaru. He was nearly at his limit, almost completely drained of both strength and chakra.

He was still a good distance away from Konoha and he regretted for the young lady's sake that he wouldn't be able to get her companion any closer, but he did have his orders from Lord Sasuke. Under no circumstances was he to allow himself to be caught.

The tree he was in was above the remants of a recent campsite. Seito guessed they were Leaf ninja returning from a mission since there had not been too much effort made to disguise it. Leaf shinobi this close to home and within Land of Fire borders wouldn't have needed to worry about that.

He knew he didn't have it within him to go much further. If he could just arrange it so that they could discover their fellow ninja then they could transport him the rest of the way to the village and probably far more swiftly than he could even manage at this point.

An idea came to him. The least likely place they were to look would be the place they just left. Silently he maneuvered down to the campsite and gently placed Shikamaru on the ground. Weak as he was, he realized that this would _have_ to work or he wouldn't be able to shoulder Shikamaru's weight again.

After briefly surveying the area to make sure that his charge was as safe as could reasonably be expected he made one final adjustment. He made sure Shikamaru's hitae-ate was clearly visible. His plan was to attract the attention of the campsite's recent occupants, lead them back here and hopefully have them so _distracted_ by the site of their own fallen comrade they would tend to him instead of giving chase to Seito himself.

Gingerly he resumed his position in the treetops and began casting around for ninjas. The remants of the fire pit were still warm so presumably they had not gone far yet this morning. He proceeded off in the direction toward Konoha.

After about a half-mile he stopped suddenly and listened. Voices from below gave him hope that he had found the group he was looking for.

"Another fruitless mission," Shino began in his flat monotone.

"Shut up, Captain Obvious," Ino threatened. If Kiba had gotten on her last nerve during their previous outing, Shino was claiming that privilege this trip. Inside she knew that her short temper was due to the continued weeks long stress brought on by their inability to find Shikamaru.

Seito counted, three shinobi and a dog. The dog Hinata had given him instructions for. He could only assume there would be Aburame bugs in the area as well and he was briefly panic stricken that he might have picked up one or more back at the campsite. He would tend to that later. Now he had to get those three back to Shikamaru without being caught himself.

Reaching in his vest pocket, Seito drew out a few miscellaneous items, some coins, the tin with his two remaining soldier pills and some energy rations. While the team below was quibbling among themselves as they walked back toward him, he slipped down lower in the trees until he was close enough to toss the coins against some pebbles on the ground.

Instantly the dog's head came up and the team whipped around with him. Rattling the tree more than was necessary he headed off back toward Shikamaru.

"Son of a bitch, someone's following us," Kiba said taking the lead to sprint in the same direction. The rest of the team joined in. In almost no time at all they had closed the gap. Seito realized this was the most perilous part of his plan. He touched down near Shikamaru and crushed one of the pills with his heels then took to the trees again heading toward the river.

Breaking through the trees the three Konoha shinobi stopped dead in their tracks when they saw the prone figure lying where they had been sleeping the previous night.

Ino gave a small gasp and raced forward before Kiba could stop her. He briefly had a fear that the body might have been booby-trapped. He quickly had other things to worry about as Akamaru began a bought of violent sneezing brought on by sniffing the crushed up soldier pill. He howled piteously.

"Akamaru? Hey Akamaru!" Kiba called out in distress rushing to tend to his dog.

"He's getting away," Shino started but Ino interrupted him.

"Never mind that, give me a hand with him _NOW!" _

Shino recognized her tone and instantly complied helping her to gently straighten him out on his back so that she could examine him. Ino ran through a quick check of his vital signs and was not at all satisfied with what she found.

"Shit Shikamaru, don't die on me you lazy-assed ninja," she was cursing and crying at the same time as she tried to use her chakra to sense the extent of his injuries.

"How is he?" Shino made the mistake of asking.

"That's what I'm fucking trying to find out," she muttered back at him. Shino decided to keep the rest of his questions to himself and just wait for her to report on Shikamaru's condition.

When Ino got to his infected thigh she gasped out loud again. "Oh no, oh no, oh no," she whispered in a chorus, pouring forth as much healing chakra as she could to stabilize him. It was a delicate balance and being in the field she had to make a quick decision whether to try to begin to extract the infection here, or strengthen him as much as possible until they got him to the medical center first.

The leg was so bad at this point she was afraid that if she didn't begin countering the infection right way he would lose it. But he was so weak she couldn't take the chance of losing _him._

As strength returned to him, Shikamaru begin to stir a little. But that soon turned to a more jerky, thrashing movement as much as his weakened body could allow in this state.

"Is he seizing?" Shino couldn't refrain from asking, holding their friend by his shoulders trying to keep him from harming himself.

"I don't know," Ino replied then addressed her patient. "Shikamaru? Shikamaru! It's me, Ino."

She studied him a moment again, seizures weren't entirely out of the question, but this didn't seem involuntary. She checked him once more and understood what had happened.

"He can't see or hear us! His nerves have been disabled," she said astonished. "Shikamaru, it's us, me, Kiba, Shino," she started again the realized the futility of that action.

"He's disoriented. It's not seizures, he doesn't know where he is, who we are," she told Shino.

Suddenly she had an idea. She grabbed one of his hands and traced the characters of her name in his palm. She did it a couple more times before he finally settled down and whispered her name.

"Can you restore this?" Shino asked hopefully.

"I…can…," she replied cautiously, "But I'd rather have Tsunade do that back at the medical center. It's not causing him any harm now, it was done very cleanly. Won't hurt if we wait until we get him…home," she said with relief.

"Where's Kiba," she asked realizing their mission leader was no longer with them. Akamaru was still whimpering nearby though.

Even as she spoke his name, Kiba returned to the clearing, a disgusted look on his face. "He got away," he said tersely. "How's Shikamaru?"

"He'll make it," Ino said and for the first time in weeks she felt a profound sense of relief that bordered on elation. He was here, back among them and they were taking him home.

"Good," Kiba acknowledge. "Ummmm…Ino, would you mind taking a look at Akamaru?"

"Sure, buddy," she said addressing the dog. "What happened to you?"

Akamaru whimpered again under her gentle touch. "Poor boy," she said after a moment and patted him on the head. She looked up at Kiba. "Just some major irritation to the nasal linings. No damage, nothing permanent, but he'll probably feel pretty miserable for a while."

"Thanks," Kiba said and he ruffled Akamaru's fur reassuringly.

"Did you see…anything else?" Shino asked with a hesitating note to his voice.

Kiba shook his head glumly. That's when it hit Ino. In her joy at having found her own teammate she overlooked the fact that her two companions were still missing theirs.

"C'mon," she said kindly, "Let's get him home."

* * *

Back in the hillside keep, Hinata had fallen into a somewhat steady routine over the last three days. She found that if she had a bland breakfast each day then her morning sickness symptoms were greatly diminished. Bland was easy to achieve so far because they only had rice and energy bars plus whatever meat Sasuke brought back each day.

All that changed yesterday when she discovered what must have been the pantry or quartermaster stores for the previous occupants of the dwelling. Row after row of dusty tins and packages of dehydrated foods greeted her eyes when she began work on that level. There was literally enough food here to feed an army.

She looked at the two packets in front of her and decided to try the powdered eggs to go along with rice for breakfast this morning. After it was prepared she ate just a small amount, enough to ward off the symptoms, then she prepared a larger breakfast for Sasuke.

It hadn't been as hard as she had feared these three days. Certainly losing Shikamaru, her last link with Konoha had been sad. But Sasuke had not really made any demands of her as yet. Organizing this keep was really no different than the task she had undertaken for herself back home to restore the Uchiha buildings.

Indeed Sasuke had avoided her as much as possible, giving her free run inside the ruins while he spent his time outside. She had not seriously considered trying to escape. Although the thought had crossed her mind she considered it futile at best. Hinata had no doubts that Sasuke was monitoring her closely even if he seemed to be keeping a distance. And she also feared that he might have some ability to communicate with Seito as well. If she were to turn up missing, even if she were easily recoverable, would he have Seito harm or kill Shikamaru because she had broken her word? No. She could not take that chance.

Hinata prepared the breakfast tray and smoothed the dark blue yukata she was now wearing. Another much appreciated find she had made recently had been a store of utilitarian clothing. The yukata was simple, dark blue and most importantly clean.

Twenty years worth of dust had come out easily by washing although some of the creases where it had been folded for so long appeared to be there to stay.

Sasuke was at their initial meeting room. This was where she brought him his meals. Today she realized that she needed to refer to it as something other than "their initial meeting room." She decided upon 'the study'. In addition to having his meals there, Sasuke also used the table to study maps and scrolls that he had either found or brought with him.

Today was no different. He was absorbed in some brittle dusty scrolls that he had come across in one of the lower levels. Sasuke nodded for her to approach and Hinata bowed and entered arranging the breakfast things on the table for him. As she prepared the tea she noticed the map scrolls off to the side.

She bent to retrieve them and as she was re-rolling them an idea came to her. After she placed them back on the table within his reach, she bowed politely and addressed him.

"Execuse me, Sasuke-sama," she began.

"Hinata, I've told you not to call me that," he replied, his eyes never leaving the scroll in front of him as he idly reached for the tea cup she had placed near his hand.

"Yes, Sasuke-san," she corrected herself and dipped her head slightly again. "If I may. I…believe I may have an answer to the question you asked me about the maps."

She danced around the topic, not wanting to speak of it directly. But she did think she might now know where the best location for him to begin his search for Karin was.

He turned his head to look at her, shock of black hair forward on one side of his face, "Go on."

Hinata hesitated. What she was going to ask him was no doubt going to be painful for him to answer but she was certain that answer was the best location. "I am sorry to have to remind you of it, Sasuke-san, but the…" Hinata faltered, she couldn't even blush, it was too painful.

"I am sorry but the location you described to me the other day, _that_ is the location you should investigate first."

"Clarify, Hinata. What do you mean?" he asked sounding impatient.

"The…ah…place where…," her voice was barely a whisper now, "where you and Karin…that you described…" she winced inwardly worried about how he was going to react.

Sasuke sat still as a stone, his hand frozen with his cup halfway to his lips. It felt as if an abyss had opened up, sucking him back down into its filth and darkness. He held a pen in his opposite hand. He tightened his grip and pressed against it with his thumb so hard that it snapped in two. Hinata gave a small start.

Until his conversation with HInata three days earlier he had blotted the memories of it from his mind. But, of course she was right. The one place Karin would most likely hide was the one place he had vowed never to enter again.


	19. Points of View

**Points of View**

_Hinata awoke in the depths of midnight to the sound of her door opening. Without even activating her Byakugan she could see him silhouetted in the doorway. The dim moonlight framed him in its silvery glow against the grey, stone walls giving his dark hair a blue-black tint._

_Blues and blacks, silvers and greys, all were cool colors. Everything about him was always a study in cool reserve. _

_But not tonight. She could feel it, tension in the air, heat from his gaze as he looked at her. Pushing back the coverlet she put her feet on the cold stone floor and stood. Her long blue nightgown sheathed her body, smooth silk fluttering gracefully around her, the skirt of it swishing gently at her ankles. _

_And still he stood just looking at her as if there was a spell between them. She felt as if she could break it but didn't know the words._

_Why was he here? Had he come to free her? Take her back? _

_To Konoha?_

_But that was dangerous. Too dangerous for him._

_She'd made a promise. Surely he understood she'd never betray that, break her word._

_Looking. He was just *looking* at her. Why didn't he say something?_

_Hinata realized then it was up to her to say something._

"_You came," she whispered._

_She started to step toward him but he'd already crossed the room at the sound of her voice. She reached out one hand and he took it in his own, drawing her close. Hinata felt the heat from him then, nothing cool about him this night at all._

"_Why did you come…?" she started to say his name but he placed one slim finger against her lips shushing her before she could say anything else. He traced his finger down her chin, along her jaw, following the curve of her throat and across her collarbone. She tilted her head to one side, her dark hair falling heavily across that shoulder._

_Quiet. They had to be quiet. Of course they did, she realized. _

_He dipped both hands beneath her hair, lifting it and letting it spill like silk through his fingers. "You're beautiful," he whispered, the first words she'd heard him speak tonight._

_His voice was deep and thrilled her in a way she'd never realized before. Suddenly she wanted to do the same to him, run her fingers through his own dark locks and tell him he was beautiful as well. She reached to free his hair from the tie that held it. She had to stretch herself up to him to do so. He slipped his hands around her waist, cinching her body close to his._

_Heat. Electricity. Chakra. She felt it all between them and it was a good thing he was holding her then because she felt her knees would have given way at that moment. His hair was loose now and fell down his own shoulders. _

"_Hinata," he whispered and his deep voice made her knees even weaker if that were possible. "Don't say anything else…"_

_And of course she wouldn't because his lips were so very near her own she…"_

_She felt the back of her legs brush against the bed and sank willing into it. The mattress gave gently under his weight as he joined her._

"_I…", she started but couldn't finish because she heard him murmur 'Shhhh…" before he covered her lips with his own…_

Hinata sat bolt upright in bed clutching her simple cotton yukata to her and gasping for air. Her body still thrummed with the memory of the dream. Weak morning sunlight and the songs of a few early rising birds spilled through her window now.

She rubbed her eyes and tried to still her racing heart. Her fingertips lingered at her lips as she remembered his own there just a moment ago.

No. It had never happened. It was just a dream. Nothing more.

But dreams had never been this vivid before, this _real. _She blushed furiously at the memory of it.

Hinata smiled secretly to herself. Even though the dream had left her with a sense of wistfulness and feeling somewhat …unfulfilled…she still had to admit that overall she felt good. Rested. Refreshed. Now that she had gotten the knack of having breakfast as early as possible to ward of the morning sickness she had to admit that pregnancy seemed to agree with her.

She hurried to dress for the day, changing the one simple yukata she had slept in for a clean one. She then tidied up her room. It was a small one on the same hallway where Sasuke had chosen one for himself. After Seito and Shikamaru had left he had had her prepare this section for their lengthier planned occupation of the place.

Sasuke hadn't given her specific orders about which room to choose for herself so she selected one on the forward side with one of the few windows throughout the place. It was heaven compared to the dank cells of her earlier confinement.

Briefly she paused to look out the window at the mist rising in the morning. Then she hurried downstairs to begin breakfast. She would have three to prepare for today.

Seito had returned two days ago. The poor boy had been near total exhaustion but before almost collapsing against Sasuke, he had managed to assure both of them that he had completed his mission successfully. He had made sure to put Shikamaru in the hands of Konoha shinobi and he was certain they had been unable to follow him back here.

As Hinata busied herself in the kitchen her mind wandered. Had Seito's return been what prompted her dream? Was it just the overall release of tension in knowing that Shikamaru was now safe? Or had his presence disrupted the status quo between her and Sasuke?

During the days Seito had been away, Sasuke had stayed outside most of the time, determining the locations of the area's mineral deposits. When he had been in the Keep he had spent much of the time studying the maps and scrolls from the original inhabitants. After their last, painful conversation about Karin's possible whereabouts she and Sasuke had reached what seemed to be a mutually agreed upon détente.

But when Seito returned, Sasuke had taken a vested interest in the boy's well being. He ordered Hinata to watch over him and checked in on him himself periodically. Clearly the boy meant a lot to him. She had been around Sasuke more these last two days than the previous four combined. Sasuke's concern seemed genuine and Hinata puzzled over it. He was such an enigma to her. The image she had of him before she left Konoha was one of ruthlessness and single-minded purpose. It was puzzling to see other aspects of him.

Checking the clock she realized that the morning was getting away from her. She smiled to herself once again remembering her dream. Another puzzle – what had prompted it? There was of course a possibly simpler explanation than it being due to relief over Shikamaru's return her a newfound comfort and curiosity over Sasuke.

Her hormones could simply be wildly out of control and in overdrive.

Lost in thought she finished the tray to take to Seito. As she picked it up and turned she saw Sasuke himself standing in the doorway where he had been studying her.

"Oh!" she gave a small start, surprised.

"Your were smiling," he commented neutrally.

"Oh, I…um,…it's a nice day," she said, flustered as the heat rushed to her cheeks again. For a panic stricken moment she wondered if his newer skills included the ability to read thoughts.

"It's nice," he agreed and moved aside to let her pass through the doorway.

As she went towards Seito's room it occurred to Hinata that she wasn't sure Sasuke he had been commenting on the day or her smile.

* * *

Shikaku stood with his hand on his wife's shoulder. She held their son's hand between her own.

_Shikamaru was alive. _

He was alive and he was going to be okay. Tsunade said so.

_Shikamaru was alive._

He recalled how relief had flooded through him two days ago when he first heard those words. Ino, bless her heart, had literally thrown herself into his arms and hugged him when she brought him the news. Completely unprofessional but he had still hugged her back. Then he had sent her off to be the one to tell Yoshino so that they could hug and cry together to their hearts' content.

Yoshino looked up at him, exhausted and pale from her vigil by his bedside. He gripped her shoulder in a reassuring manner and whispered one more time, "He's going to be okay."

A slight stirring from the bed jerked her attention away from her husband and back to her son. "Shikamaru?" she asked breathlessly.

"Mom?" his voice was hoarse from his dry throat. "Dad?" he opened his eyes a bit and looked up at them trying to focus. "Is that you?"

Even though he had experienced his first overwhelming wave of relief two days ago when his son was returned, Shikaku didn't realize how much tension he was still holding in waiting to see the extent of his recovery. Tsunade had assured him that the leg would heal and that his vision and hearing would be fully restored but this was the first time he and Yoshino had had a chance to see that for themselves. This was the first time he had returned to consciousness since the Hokage had re-established the neural pathways that Hinata had disabled.

Shikamaru blinked and looked at them blearily again. "Oh, Shikamaru," his mother sobbed, leaning forward to hug him. Weakly he raised one hand in a feeble attempt to return the gesture. Looking over his mother's shoulder, he caught site of his father.

"Dad. I kind of messed up."

"Don't be ridiculous," Shikaku said. "You're here now and you're going to be fine. That's what matters. But can you tell us what happened?"

"It was Karin, Dad, somehow she knew. She must have been planning it for a while," Shikamaru answered as his mother sat up and looked at her husband.

"I thought so," his father mused. "And Hinata?"

"Sasuke has her."

Yoshino gasped. "Sasuke? Uchiha? She's working with him? After years in Konoha?" Yoshino was astounded.

"No, not exactly," Shikamaru whispered, his strength already failing fast. "They aren't together at all, Sasuke hates her. But…she knew, they knew about Hinata and…" Shikamaru struggled to continue.

"Anything else you can remember son?" Shikaku asked.

"Shikaku, let him rest," Yoshino pleaded. "He's told you enough, Sasuke Uchiha is behind it."

Shikaku held up hand, "Just one more thing, Yoshino. Shikamaru, who exactly injured you?"

"It was Karin," Shikamaru was emphatic. "Sasuke…took us back, after she attacked us."

Shikamaru was succumbing to the pain medication and falling back asleep. Yoshino patted him gently as she did when he was a young child and kissed his forehead before turning to face her husband. Her eyes were sharp. Facing him with her hands on her hips she confronted him. "Not one answer he gave you surprised you! You already knew!"

Shikaku sighed. He had known this moment would come and he dreaded it. It wasn't exactly that he had been lying to his wife he just hadn't told her…everything.

"When Ino and Kiba and Shino retrieved Shikamaru he was carrying a scroll, chakra sealed for the Hokage. It was from Hinata. She had outlined exactly what had happened. Karin _is_ the one who attacked him. She would have killed Shikamaru outright and Hinata eventually if Sasuke hadn't…saved them."

"But Hinata? _Is_ she safe? What's happened to her?"

"According to her message she is and she is staying with Sasuke of her own free will. I just wanted to hear it from Shikamaru to see how much of the contents of her message he could confirm."

"But still," Yoshino protested, "It's obviously written under duress. And what do you mean, Karin would have killed her _eventually? _And why would Hinata _choose _to stay with _Sasuke_?"

Shikaku realized that his circle of conspirators was going to have to increase by one. And also that there would be hell to pay with Yoshino for him not having filled her in from the start as soon as he became aware of it.

Fortunately he had a brief reprieve when Ino and Chouji appeared at the door. Ino was carrying a small arrangement of flowers and Chouji had a fruit basket in hand.

"Can we see him?" his blond teammate whispered from the doorway.

"We were just leaving," Shikaku answered before Yoshino could speak, placing his hand gently at the small of her back to steer her toward the door. "He's asleep now but it's fitful. He may wake up and I'm sure he'd be glad to see you two."

"Thank you, Commander Nara," Ino whispered again gratefully as the two stood aside to let the couple pass.

Shikaku studied them both, one teammate up to date on everything that was going on so far and the other only aware that their partner had been injured on a mission. He found himself in the same position with Yoshino. This secret was already having a negative impact on Konoha by causing too many good people to keep secrets from too many other good people..

"Come with me," he said to his wife. "We have a lot to talk about."

* * *

Temari thought she recognized the woman through the weak genjutsu she had cast about herself. It was hardly elaborate, not much more than a village girl wearing overly done makeup. It was just enough to throw off anyone who might be looking for someone with specific features.

Now why would Neji Hyuuga be meeting with someone who did not want to be easily recognized?

Temari considered that perhaps the young woman might just be trying to accomplish the same thing via genjutsu as most girls did through make-up – look good for the guy. Neji was certainly a handsome man, what girl wouldn't be flattered to be with him and want to look her best?

Still, there was something odd about the arrangement.

First of all, the location was hardly the place for a tryst. It was one step up from what Temari would describe as a dive. The bar was a short distance away from Satoshi's warehouse, but a world away in terms of ambiance. This particular street was full of the types of establishments where nobody knew your name and nobody wanted to know your business.

As the capital of the Land of Wind and a transportation center for a lot of trade, Suna certainly had healthy black and grey markets for goods. For the most part the shinobi didn't trouble about it as long as no one was actually being hurt. Violence and human trafficking would be dealt with swiftly but if all people wanted to do was to trade in goods that the daimyo had declared illegal on a whim then it was the Kazekage's policy to let them.

So places where everybody went but nobody wanted to know about it were probably more common in Suna than in the other hidden villages. If Neji wanted to pick up something to smoke or drink that he couldn't obtain back in Konoha that was his business, not hers. She wouldn't even bother to put it in a report back to Commander Nara.

But that didn't seem to be what was going on here. The two of them were deep in conversation and all they seemed to be imbibing was water, as near as she could tell.

And Neji's demeanor was curious too. He was treating the woman with suspicion almost disbelief. Even for a Hyuuga his eyes appeared wide.

At one point the woman leaned forward and took both his hands in hers, obviously very adamant about the point she was making. Neji shook his head violently and stood up to leave.

The woman stood up just as quickly and as she was trying to prevent Neji from leaving her genjutsu slipped just a little. Temari saw a spill of red hair before the genjutsu was restored.

The red-head was coaxing Neji back into his chair and ordering something a little stiffer for him to drink. Numbly he took it and just held it, looking at it for the

longest time before taking a drink.

Karin! In that moment it came to Temari who the red-head was. It was Karin from the Leaf Village, previously of Team Hebi.

The last Temari had heard of Karin was what Commander Nara told her. She was on an extended mission with Shikamaru and Hinata. Temari didn't normally keep up with the comings and goings of most of the Leaf ninja, but since she hadn't yet heard back from Shikamaru she had assumed their clandestine mission was still on-going.

Which made Karin's presence in Suna even odder. Either the mission was concluded and she would have expected some type of communication from Shikamaru. Or else the mission involved Suna itself in some way.

Temari hesitated for a moment. The bar was empty enough, no one was paying attention to her in her corner nursing a drink. The hood of her cloak covered her own hair and fell forward over her face. She doubted Neji and Karin would notice her they were so engrossed in whatever topic the two of them were discussing.

She took a chance and initiated a small jutsu for manipulating the air currents. Not much of a change and not very effective but at least it would allow her to possibly overhear their conversation.

"_What you're saying is outrageous. Hinata would never be involved in such a thing." Neji shook his head in disbelief._

"_It's true. I came to you because I thought someone from Hyuuga should know. She's betrayed you all. And Shikamaru helped her."_

"_Shikamaru? Nara? You expect me to believe one of the most respected members of one of the most respected clans in the village is party to this?"_

"_Neji, I was there. I was one of the ones who saw them leave together." Karin fidgeted nervously with the glass in front of her. "I…I can't blame you for not believing me. What you say about them is right. They are respected members of their clans. And I'm…nobody."_

"_Forgive me, Karin" Neji apologized. "I did not mean to imply that you were less than them. It's just that this information is impossible for me to believe. I can't help but seek an alternate explanation. Perhaps you misunderstood…"_

"_Neji, I swear to you. I saw her go to him. She's with Sasuke. And if she is…"_

"_If she is, it's treason," Neji finished for her grimly._

"_So you believe me?" Karin asked, fairly breathless with anticipation at his answer._

"_Let's say, you've given me something worth looking into more closely," he said, rising to leave._

"_And what will you do?" She asked. _

"_I will…consider my options," he answered as he turned to leave._

Temari sat and finished her drink, waiting until long after Karin had left as well before she exited the bar. She still didn't know exactly what it was that had Neji so shook up at the beginning of their meeting. But whatever it was, Shikamaru was involved in it.

Which would probably explain Commander Nara's unusual request to her directly rather than via Ibiki.

And also, whatever Karin had told him must have been the truth. Neji might not have _wanted_ to believe it but he had never indicated he thought she was lying.

Everyone knew you couldn't lie to a Hyuuga.


	20. Solace

**Solace**

Seito's strength was returning and Hinata found she was glad to have the company. Over the last couple of weeks as the boy rested and recuperated Sasuke had continued spending the majority of his time outside. Although her work inside kept her busy it was pleasant to have someone for conversation when she would occasionally take a break or bring him his meals.

It had taken him longer to recover than they expected because he had depleted his chakra to dangerously low levels. Lately Sasuke had been asking Seito to accompany him on his survey as long as he felt able. Hinata continued to notice the concern Sasuke showed to his subordinate. At one point she caught herself wondering what kind of a sensei Sasuke would have made. Even though the age difference was much closer between the two of them, she still thought his actions reminded her of Asuma-sensei's towards Shikamaru in the past, or possibly even the way she could dimly recall his brother Itachi treating Sasuke himself when they were younger.

Hinata realized there was something about being here in this remote location that seemed to put him at ease. Perhaps here, away from his revenge fueled anger toward Konoha and the memories of any places associated with Orochimaru he could simply be himself. Another thought crossed her mind - with only her and Seito here perhaps he also had no worries about untrustworthy underlings. She wondered if any of his current companions within his organization that he spoke about would actually try to plot against him.

"Hinata!" Sasuke's voice startled her out of her reverie so that she almost dropped the tray she was carrying for their lunch.

"Oh!" she said in surprise as she turned to see him. "I was just bringing the things out for you and Seito."

"Join us, then, if you haven't already had lunch yourself," he told her.

She hurried into their dining room and settled herself with them at the low table, serving the food and pouring tea.

After a few moments Sasuke addressed her. "Are you still wishing to go outside Hinata?"

Again, his words surprised her so much so that this time she actually reverted to her stutter, "H-hai, yes, Sasuke." She blushed in excitement like a little girl and then realized it and felt her face burn even hotter. How ridiculously child-like she must seem to him. But to actually be out, in the open and fresh air after so long inside. Her little window in her room as well as the balconies and terraces had been her only solace during this time. But to actually have the ground, grass beneath her feet, trees above her, yes, she had missed it terribly.

"Good," Sasuke said and had to hide his own smirk at how her expression of happiness made him feel. She never presented herself as sad around him and he knew this was a studied effort on her part, but nonetheless he found that he enjoyed the few times he did actually see her smile. Moving some dishes aside he spread one of the old maps out displaying his recent annotations.

"We've mapped out the extent of the largest mineral deposits," he motioned to the map indicating a semicircle radiating away from their current location. "Basically if you stay between the keep and the river as the boundaries to the east and west and no further than these arcs as your boundaries north and south," he pointed to the markings on his map then continued,"you should be within the limits of the chakra masking." He looked up at her making sure she understood him. "This is as much for your own protection as... anything else. Am I clear?"

The excitement of a moment earlier wavered just a little under his stern gaze. "Hai, yes, I understand. And thank you." Then she added with her own strength back in her voice. "But you should know that my own safety is not all that keeps me here. I said I would stay and I will, within whatever bounds you set." She held his gaze, her own steady.

Seito studied the two of them without speaking. His new 'mistress' for lack of a better term and her relationship with his master still puzzled him. She had started out prisoner and seemed to now be functioning as a servant although he could never imagine any servant talking to his master so. It was a puzzle.

Sasuke acknowledged her statement with simply a nod as he re-rolled his map. As he did so he was admitting to himself that Hinata's word was her bond. Even if there were no threat to her and no...pregnancy to contend with...she had offered herself in place of Shikamaru and she would honor that agreement no matter what. That's simply who she was. Mineral deposits with chakra-blocking characteristics or no, if he set the parameters for her she would abide by them. Not because of who_ he_ was. But because of who _she_ was. It was...unique among all the people he'd been associated with since leaving to become Orochimaru's student. For just the briefest of moments he thought he wished that she would want to stay because of who_ he_ was, Sasuke Uchiha. "Let us go, then."

He rose and the other two followed. They descended the stairs, not all the way to the basement levels where she had first been kept, but only to the main floor where she had so often seen him come and go. It seemed silly to Hinata but she felt like the princess in the tower who has finally found her escape. Even though there was no where to go but simply outside, that was where she longed to be. Stepping out into the bright sunshine for the first time in several weeks she tipped her face up to the sun and smiled, whispering "Oh, Sasuke."

He couldn't help but smile himself. It was...delightful to see her so happy.

"What do you want me to do?" she asked turning to face him.

Her question jolted him back to reality. She was his servant, he her master, he should assign her some task. Instead he was enjoying simply watching her. He thought back a moment to why he had originally asked him to accompany them outside. "I think we are all tired of the reconstituted rations for the stores inside and simply meat. See what you can find that would be a little fresher for dinner tonight. You know the boundaries." With that he left, motioning Seito to follow him.

Hinata puzzled over it as he walked away. It was already autumn and there were hardly any cultivated crops in this wilderness. Still there should be some nuts and berries in season. She hurried back to the storeroom, being inside as briefly as possible in case the doors should shut and close her within. Returning to the fresh air with a couple of baskets she began foraging for whatever she could find.

By evening Hinata had managed to gather in a couple of punnets of blackberries and a basket of nuts she had collected. More importantly she had found some wild sage and rosemary. They had not been suffering from a lack of food, there was plenty in the storerooms. But Sasuke was right, they would all appreciated something fresh and a little variety in their diet. She wasn't worried about the small amount she had collected she was more interested in making the meal more interesting tonight. When Sasuke and Seito returned they were carrying a couple of plump rabbits as well. Hinata smiled. It would be an interesting supper indeed.

It was already getting cool when they returned to the keep for the evening. She busied herself with dinner preparations while Sasuke and Seito were occupied outside with some other repairs Sasuke wanted undertaken. As she put the finishing touches on the supper she recalled one item in the storerooms that she hadn't used yet. There was only a small supply and she really hadn't seen any reason to use the few bottles of sake she'd found til now but the day had seemed such a pleasant one that she decided to serve it, too. It was a pleasant surprise to the young men when served and although Hinata did not have any she enjoyed the conversation that resulted.

As the evening wore on she realized that for the first time since becoming Sasuke's prisoner she was somewhat at ease. Shikamaru was safe in Konoha. Seito, whom she'd grown oddly fond of herself was recovering nicely and she was certain that Shikamaru was too in Tsunade's capable hands. Sasuke was neither the boy she remembered or the monster he was reported to be back home in Konoha but a rather complex and conflicted young man. And one who had demonstrated that he would not harm her or her child..._their_ child, nor would he allow anyone else to harm them. She was by no means happy but just for the moment she felt content.

_**A/N: ** I am SO sorry this has taken me so long to update but real life has a way of intervening. Please forgive me and I hope you're still interested in the story. Please leave a review and let me know what your thoughts and feedback are. I'm especially curious if you're still interested in the story given the recent manga chapters 613 and on. (I won't give spoilers here but if you've read the latest chapters you know what I'm talking about.) _


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